Zone D -- The Foam

[Lord Zedd]

Shit, shit, shit!

Lord Zedd moved through the water as fast as he could, which wouldn’t have been too exceptional even if we weren’t awkwardly wading through the chest deep sea. The trail of blood was still behind him, and the subtly of the wildlife had been dropped. They were in pursuit of a good meal. Keeping his cool wasn’t working quite as well anymore, either.

“When I rule this land, you will be the main course at my inaugural banquet!” Zedd shouted wildly behind him as he fled from the approaching sharks.

It was with no success, as one finally hit him and plunged him into the ocean. Zedd rolled in the water as he tumbled down, only to see the hungry maw of a great white shark approaching him rapidly. Air bubbles shot from his visor with his surprise, but he did not freeze. He wasn’t going to be beaten by the damn wildlife.

He swung his staff wildly, bashing it in the face twice before it turned and retreated away from him. This gave Zedd ample opportunity to stand up with a loud roar. The viewing audience couldn’t quite see the shark, so they were forced to guess why Zedd suddenly started beating at the water with his staff.

“Come out, you coward!”  Zedd challenged the non-participant, raising his staff once more. “Let me rip the teeth from your oversized mouth!”

He caught sight of a fin, once again, and did his best attempt at a sprint as he went into pursuit of that particular shark. He wasn’t thinking at all about the others in the area, or the additional blood he had drawn in his defense. More importantly, he wasn’t paying attention to the direction he was going.

Under the setting sun, Zedd jumped and hopped through the water as fast as he could. His staff was raised above his head and he was hurling expletives, thinking he might get a win out of this after all.

Moving from D10 to D14

[Lord Zedd]

“...And another thing, you gil-breathing sack of organs!” Zedd screamed as he waded through the water, with his staff still poised to strike down on his prior stalker. “You cannot escape the wrath which you have wr- where am I?”

Zedd paused his rage filled tirade and began to look around. He should have been on land by now. He happened to recognize this particular juncture of open water and islands dotting the horizon. Had he really been turned around by the fish? He really wasn’t having any luck in these depths.

All of that travelling, at an accelerated pace no less, while fleeing from his pursuer had been undone by taking his own turn as the chaser. Infuriating.

Something swept behind him, and Zedd was knocked forward. He turned quickly and swung his staff like a golf club, connecting with that damn shark once more. It had managed to flank him. He didn’t know how, but he was tired of this round and round they had gotten into, and he swore if he accomplished one thing in this godforsaken tournament it would be riding these shallows of this beast.

With perfect timing, the shark exploded from the water, its massive jaws wide open and threatening to consume the wading warlord. Zedd held his shifting ground, and swung his staff upwards to meet the challenge. He collided with the shark’s nose and seemed to stun it, but unfortunately the shark was still two thousand pound mass of muscle.

The shark landed on Zedd and they crashed to the shallow ocean floor, with Zedd wildly punching at the beast with his free hand the entire time. Once more the shark retreated, but this time it wasn’t to a safe distance. It took off at full speed, with its dorsal fin disappearing into the horizon. Zedd had proven there were likely easier meals.

His kill count remained zero, but at least he felt good about himself.

Moving from D14 to Safehouse D

[Lord Zedd]

Zedd made his way up the hill, and once more entered the building with the only bit of dry land he could find. The safehouse remained empty and forgotten, and he quietly wondered if all of the island’s havens remained this way. It had to be fairly lively, entering a building filled with people you were sworn to kill but just couldn’t, yet. Zedd didn’t have to struggle too hard to imagine that scenario, as it was honestly the same as every day he spent in Coruscant.

He knew he was just tired of ending up at this one building in particular. He was sore, tired, and still soaking well from his adventures. Knowing his luck, he figured he was one of the outliers in his travels. Everyone else was probably galavanting from place to place with nothing to entertain them except their internal thoughts and the conversations of any packs they’d formed. In that case, maybe Zedd was better off squaring off against sharks. It seemed less repulsive.

There was a beep from his small knapsack, and he pulled the tablet from it. An item drop was due, soon, in a neighboring area. The only problem was that he would have to travel further into the sea to get it. Truly, he would never see the actual land of the island at this rate. But, if victory was to be gained with the fish, then that was alright.

Zedd returned the tablet to the backpack and trekked out of the building once more. Whatever the hell that tablet was made of that made it able to withstand the elements unlike anything he’d ever seen, he’d need to get some of it. That would be after this horrible nightmare had ended, though.

For now, he once more descended into the ocean.

Moving from Safehouse D to D18

[Lord Zedd]

Somewhere, at the very border of the island, stood Lord Zedd. The water remained up to his chest, and he was fairly certain that he might end up growing a set of gills by the end of this.

He looked longingly at the sun setting on the horizon, taking in the gorgeous sunset. As it was touching the edge of the sea, a photocard worthy pallette of colors decorated the perfectly calm ocean. It was a true testament to the beauty of nature, and specifically the verse that Karl Jak had created.

It was disgusting.

Misgivings about the environment aside, Zedd didn’t know where to start, so he just took a moment to seethe at the empty space before him.

Zedd is in holding in the area, and waiting before he searches.

[Sterling Archer]

My head pounded as we rumbled through the empty streets, approaching the outer limits of the city. The walloping Graw had given back in the Colosseum had left me with a persistent dull ache that I had been, up until that point, ignoring, though I found myself unable to put it away any longer. Adding insult to injury, a mild drowsiness had settled over me as we sat in silence.

“We’re getting close,” Graw said, her face suddenly millimeters away from my ear.

“JESUS,” I swore, tilting my head away from her rubbery cheek. “You scared the shit out of me.” Her eyes were trained on the road as she craned her neck forward, seemingly oblivious to personal space.

“Sshe’ss doing you a favor,” Cell commented. “You were falling assleep.”

“I was not!” I replied indignantly. “This drive is just getting boring. There’s not really anything new around to comment on.”

“Yeah, well keep uss out of the ditch, hotshot,” the bug muttered.

I opened my mouth to comment before slamming on the brakes, skidding to a sideways stop as the pavement ended. Ahead I could make out a large grassy expanse, giving way to what looked like marshland farther out. The fog of the city gave way to a light drizzle, blown about by a gentle gusting.

“Why’d you stop?” the azure abomination asked, having not moved her face from literal inches of my own. “We still have a ways to go.”

“The road ends here, though,” I noted, pointing at the ‘DEAD END’ sign.

“And?” the roach asked, slamming his hand on the dashboard. “Hit the gass! Are we bringing Dad’ss car back from the sschool dancce afterward, or are we going to get a posssibly dangerouss weapon to kill a f-uCKER-” It seemed Cell valued his vocabulary over his personal comfort.

“Good point,” I muttered, begrudgingly. “But for the record, I DID think of that.”

“Okay!” Graw agreed, smiling. “It’s a good idea!”

I sighed. Why did I join these two again?

Colosseum Bros moving from C12 -> D8

[Sterling Archer]

“We’re making good time,” Graw said brightly, at this point opting to simply sit atop the center console between Cell and I. Despite her shorter stature, her head poked through where the roof would have been, her rubbery skin stretching as the wind blasted her face.

“What’re we, about half-way?” I inquired, glancing away to steal a quick look at the navigation.

No sooner had my eyes left the road than I felt the ground seem to fall away beneath the vehicle, the nose tipping and diving downward. With a muffled sploosh, the jeep came to a stop, sinking into the waterlogged earth, the swamp gobbling up the heavy steel vehicle.

“Welp, that wass fun,” Cell snarked, hopping out of his seat as the jeep sank deeper. “F-UUUck this car anyway,” he said dismissively. As I scrambled from my own seat, I thought I could hear him going off on another of his salesbug tirades, hocking some variety of whatever that I’d never heard of.

“That was fun!” Graw agreed, hopping easily out of the car and splashing into the waist-deep water. “I do wish that the car was amfibblyous though. That sounds pretty cool too.”

“Amphibiouss,” the bio-android hissed. “Anyway, it doessn’t matter. Make ssure your tabletss didn’t take a dunk.”

I pulled my own from my pocket hastily and checked out the route. Thankfully, the quick dip in the drink hadn’t harmed it and it had remained locked on the dropsite. “Alright,” I said. “Follow me. It’s this way.”

“But we know the lay of the land better, shouldn’t we lead?” Graw asked, squinting through the drizzly rain.

“Don’t bother, blueberry” Cell said, waving her off. “Vassco de Lame-a inssisstss on being our fearlesss leader. Let him have that headache for now.”

“Renowned explorer," I sneered. "So despite that pathetic pun, not an insult.”

Colosseum Bros D8 -> D7

[The Future Warrior]

"Well, it should be on out that way." Graowr lifted a hand, pointing out to the south.

"Riiiight into the deepest part of the flooding. Great." Archer just shook his head. "Nothing like a night-time swim in murky waters off the coast of a murder island."

"I can't swim," the blue demon girl piped up as the started off. "But it's okay. I just kind of sink, and walk on the bottom and stuff."

Somehow, the secret agent wasn't surprised. But that did leave one kind of question, which he was just about equally torn on whether he really wanted to know the answer to. "And when you need to breathe...?"

"Oh, I don't need to do that." She shrugged. "I can breathe in and out and stuff but I don't..." She waved a hand idly, trying to drum up the right words. "...you know, actually...need to? I just don't process it or really need it to survive. It's kind of handy. Somebody tried to choke me in a fight once. It didn't go well for them!"

The agent just lifted a hand to rub gingerly at his throat, while Cell snickered quite audibly from his position a pace or two behind them. "Even if you could breathe and got choked out...be hard to tell when you were running out of air. You're already blue," the giant green cricket rasped, with a chuckle that trailed off into silent amusement.

"Oh, right! Hey, uh..." Graowr hurried her pace a little to catch up and match stride with Archer, looking up at him. "How's your head doing?"

"Oh, you know, great. Just feels like a bell after a wedding." He shook his head, with a low groan. A hand came up to his eyes, rubbing at his face.

The azure demonette just blinked once, not really catching the sarcasm. "Oh. So you're doing okay then, great! I was worried you might still not be doing so well. That fight in the Colosseum was pretty rough and all."

The only response was a groan from the suited man and an indistinct grumble from the bio-bug.

Colosseum Bros moving out: D7 to D11

[Strazio Rockwell]

Strazio followed the river for quite some time. As he walked the crest of Darkshire bounced off his bare chest and sparkled in the midday light. Eventually the river opened up into a vast floodplain. His boots squished against the ankle deep layer of muck and he immediately regretted his decision to head south. Still the way back was further than the way forward and so he continued on. It only took a few steps through the marshland to waterlog his boots and he had an unfortunate feeling that the safe houses lacked fresh socks.

“This fucking sucks,” he growled.

Soon enough the marsh gave way to drier land. Tropical plants and animals surrounded him. Every now and again a thick clump of vines barred his path, nothing that a quick burst of magick couldn’t fix, but annoying nonetheless. His stomach growled and he stopped for a moment. It had been a while since he had ate and the constant physical exertion burned through calories quickly. He groaned and rubbed his belly. Strazio could power through most forms of pain, but hunger was a particularly insidious malady.

A branch snapped nearby and Strazio dropped into a crouch. He craned his neck trying to listen. Birds chirped overhead and strange animals called out to one another. Another snapped branch followed by a rustling of leaves. Something was headed towards him. He stood slowly and pushed through a thicket towards the sound. A large creature that looked to be a cross between a bear and an elk stood on four legs nonchalantly munching on a bushel of pink-colored leaves. Strazio licked his lips and began to charge a bolt of death. He raised his palm and took aim, and just as he was ready to fire a guilty pang tugged at the boy’s heart. Strazio discharged his energy and cursed himself. He shouted to spook the creature and it tore through the tropical forest.

His stomach growled and on a whim he plucked one of the pinkish leaves and stuffed in his his mouth. Sweet nectar filled his maw and he grabbed a few more of the saccharine treats and stuff them down his throat. The boy chewed happily and it wasn’t until it was too late that he made a sudden and terrible realization.

The creature wasn’t eating the leaves for sustenance, but rather as means to intoxicate itself.

Strazio’s body erupted into a storm of fuzz. Every pain receptor muted itself and allowed feel-good chemicals to flood the boy’s brain. And try as he might to resist the absinthe-like fairy his willpower melted as fast as his cognizance. Carried by whatever whimsical machinations that drove him he started to march inland.

Moving D3 to C2

[The Future Warrior]

The group of three had passed from the tropical jungle and swamps and into the actual floodplains. For a while, the water only slowly climbed, a few inches at a time with every passing minute. Then it started to rapidly get higher, and higher, and waves from the coast began to start lapping and breaking, producing faint sprays of salty spume. Even for Graowr, it wasn't yet up to a height to take her under, but it was already getting to be slow going. "It gets pretty deep up ahead. It's already kinda deep here, but...it gets even worse further out there!" she said, just in time for a wave to come crashing by and almost knock her off her feet. "BWAGCH!"

"Maybe less talking while you're right at smacking height for Poseidon's angry sheet rippling," Archer muttered. He was trying not to laugh, at the completely absurd display. Mostly because he was wondering all over again just what she was made of. This much water, and the waves constantly breaking over her, should have left her well and truly hapless, bowled over and washed away at the first opportunity. She wasn't doing anything like that, of course. Aside from the occasional sputtering as she returned an unwanted mouth or eye-full of muddy brine to its natural habitat, she seemed...remarkably unaffected by the water. Slowed down a little, certainly, but she was just trucking right along.

Cell, on the other hand, was having no problems whatsoever. His towering, lanky build left a goodly portion of his body well above water, and let him square off into a crouch, keeping himself stable and not even slowing down from the relatively minor waves.

"I think we're getting closer!" Graowr piped up. "The safehouse is over that way, and the item should...GHKCHF!" She went down under a spray of salty foam, only to pop back up half a dozen paces to the left . "...blegh. Should be just ahead, over this way!" She shook her head to clear the water from her vision, pointing more or less straight on to the south. "Not much further now!"

"Great. Be glad to get a chance to start heading back out of all this water," Archer muttered.

Colosseum Bros moving: D11 to D15

[The Future Warrior]

By now, the water was as deep as it was liable to get. Graowr was in a constant state of squinting and making slow, hopping steps to even keep her eyes above water and able to see at all, from the constant wash of briny spray assaulting her. She could still see and keep up (if only just barely) with her two compatriots for now, but she was fairly well locked out of being able to talk, with most of her time spent having her mouth below sea level. The occasional bubble or seven emerged whenever she let out a 'breath', but she never said a peep. The sudden silence, free from her energetic rambling, encouragement and questions was almost deafening.

"Man...water's starting to get pretty rough out here," Archer noted, staggering under a foamy breaker and lifting a hand to wipe the salty spray away from his eyes. "Hope we're getting close, or else we might seriously end up going fora swim out here."

"Sswimming..." Cell grumbled. "Jusst delightful. And me with only my vacation pants."

"Well hey, maybe we can stop by that resort that's supposed to be down here on our way back to dry land. Rummage around and find you some swimming gear, bug-man."

An inquisitive stream of bubbles came up from the diminutive blue gal, her eyes blinking up at the two taller travelers.

"Oh, right...swimming, you don't do that, you said." Archer went quiet for a moment. "Basically...people tend to wear specific clothes to go swimming in."

"Ooooor...ssometimess, they don't wear anything at all," Cell added.

A few thoughtful bubbles drifted up, popping slowly one by one on the surface of the water. When there came a brief lull in the waves, the gummy cerulean creature hopped up out of the water, bounding for a few strides to get her words out. "Nothing seems a lot better. Less restrictive! And no need to dry anything off afterward except yourself!"

Battered roach and concussed agent both shared a mutual snicker at that, prompting another confused stare from their far more naive companion as they slowly forged onward across the flooded coastline.

Colosseum Bros moving D15 to D18

[The Future Warrior]

Through the water they trudged, now being guided by their fearless leader, holding his tablet well out of the water to check the map. "Okay, so...according to this we should be getting pretty close..." He looked up, casting his eyes around for anything that stood out. Nothing around but water. Yeah, that was expected.

"Sso...we came all the way out here, and have no idea where the damn thing is?" Cell spoke up. "Jusst to clarify and all that."

For a good several seconds, their short, waterlogged blue comrade was quiet, just staring ahead intently, eyes narrowed in focus. Studying something intently, off in the near distance.

"Yeah, it's looking that way...maybe it landed on like a rock or something? Some kinda chunk of whatever sticking up out of the water." Archer cast his eyes around again, searching for anything that might match that description.

Bubbles emerged in an energetic stream from Graowr's submerged mouth. She'd spotted something, by the look of it. Both of her arms splashed up out of the water, and she hopped up, well out of the increasingly rough brine, leaping through the air. "Hey! Hey, Zedd!" She splashed back down, some dozen paces forward of where she had been, and continued forward in short, quick hops. Out of the water, and back down under the surface, splashing and foraging along. She was sure of it now, it was him! Standing there, glaring at the ocean like it had insulted his mother.

The skinless galactic tyrant had scarcely time to register something was coming toward him, much less register what it was or turn around to greet it, before a soaking wet blur of blue and black exploded out of the water, diving for him in a (admittedly, very comically) majestic flying tackle. It hit him like a sopping cannonball, sending him staggering drunkenly half a pace. "What in the—?!" He recovered himself, doing his best to glare over his shoulder at whatever had latched onto his back. In the end, he resolved to heft his Z-Staff, peering into the polished metal as a makeshift mirror. When he saw a pair of wide, bright pink eyes staring back at him from a blue face, the tension and aggression in his posture eased (very, very slightly) and he heaved a sigh. "Release me, cerulean abomination," he demanded in a tired, resigned tone.

"Glad to see you again, too!" she said brightly, leaning forward to shift her grip to drape her arms over the dark tyrant's shoulders, her head shifting forward into his peripheral view. "Where've you been? I was starting to think I'd never find you!"

"I have been stuck wandering among these accursed floodwaters since I arrived!" Zedd snarled, smiting at the water with a backhanded strike. "And I said release me!"

The only response to that was the majin's arms curling inward in an unmistakable hug. "But the water's over my head!" she whined.

The former galactic warlord was practically seething by this point, and it was a wonder the water around them hadn't started to boiling yet. "Fine!" he finally snapped. "Until we are on dry land I will support you. But only until then!" This earned a soft, delighted 'yay!', to which he only let out a muted, angry growl.

"Oh, found a new friend, did ya?" Archer's voice came drifting out of the background.

"Or an old friend, more like," came the hissing voice of Cell shortly after.

Zedd whirled around to face the newcomers, staff in hand, only for Graowr to lift a hand in a wave. "Oh, sorry for running off guys! This is Zedd—"

"Lord Zedd," the skinless warlord interrupted.

"—yeah, Lord Zedd!" she went right on, completely unperturbed. "He's a friend, and we both work for the Empire! I didn't know he joined until a couple days ago, but I'm glad to see him again!"

"Well great, that's just super. While you were re-acquainting, we found the item drop." Archer held up his tablet, showing a zoomed in map of their current location.

"It'ss jusst up ahead, there," Cell spoke up again, pointing further out to sea. "Another few dozen yardss, that little outcropping there."

Zedd's visored face whipped around as the location was pointed out. He turned slowly back to face the other two, studying them intently. "You are also after the item drop?" he questioned, words slow and precise.

"We're all going for it!" Graowr piped up, interrupting anything further. "Maybe we could all go and look for it. More eyes would make it quicker to find!"

"....true enough, perhaps," Zedd reluctantly agreed. Even with such a definite location, perhaps it could have fallen into the surf or gotten dislodged by the waves. Who knew exactly where it lay?

"Great, everyone's one big happy team, now. Let's go."

Colosseum Bros: Zedd joined the party!
Searching for item drop. I'll be holding onto it.

[Karl Jak]

End Day 2

Start Day 3 -- Early Morning (12 am to 6 am)

It is now raining. Everywhere on the island. Enjoy.

This phase ends at 430 CDT tomorrow, the 23rd of June

[The Future Warrior]

With the new addition to their group, they continued on through the salty water and ocean spray, out into the deeper water. It grew rougher and choppier as they went, the waves getting more aggressive this far out. But they made it to the indicated location of the item drop. There was an obvious mass of purple strung out of the the rocks, soaking wet and torn in several places.

"Think we found it," Archer spoke up, and with a mutual round of agreement they split up to search around the immediate area.

Several minutes of searching, and no luck later, a certain galactic tyrant was growing increasingly frustrated. "I thought you said that the item was around this location!" he snapped, angry voice carrying clearly over the steadily mounting rain and sounds of surf. "And yet we have had no sign of it! Has it been already claimed?!"

"No way!" Graowr spoke up. "The alerts said it hasn't been picked up yet, so it's still here!"

"Then perhaps you should get off of me and help us in our search!" the warlord growled.

"Oh! Yeah, that could probably help!" She shifted to heft herself up and hop down...only for a rogue wave to come crashing by. All four of the group were sent stumbling or knocked down under the surface. The smallest, bluest member of their group was among the latter category. Under the waves, tumbling back until she ended up sprawled out against the rock. For a good minute, she remained there, disgruntled and puzzled. Was...was she seeing things right? Was that the...?

"So...the big angry guy's gone. Blueberry disappeared. Think they're dead?" Archer ventured when neither of the two missing members of their team showed their face after a minute.

"Maybe if we don't talk about them, they'll sstay gone," Cell rasped. "Jusst keep looking for the item."

The words had barely left the bug's beak before the water exploded up in a surge of salt and foam, and Graowr came flipping through the air to land on the rock. "Found it!" she said, holding the small capsule up. And no sooner had she done so, than the sky unzipped and the persistent, irritating drizzle went to a full-on downpour.

"...fan-friggin-tasstic..." Cell grumbled.

[The Future Warrior]

Graowr looked from brine-drenched bug-man to waterlogged secret agent. There was half of their team, but...someone was missing. "Wait...where'd Zedd go?"

"No idea. Now less talking and more moving," Archer spoke up. "Kinda like to get out of this rain soon as we can. It was already awful out here, now it's gone straight to terrible."

"But...but...!" the azure demon-thing protested, looking around wildly. "He was just here, though! Just, like...here, and then poof he's not here anymore!"

"Lessss whining, more walking!" Cell snapped, and surged through the water and rain. One clawed hand closed around the blue not-alien's scarf, tugging her along. She gave a little yelp of surprise, but offered no resistance to being tugged along.

"Look, I think there was some kinda flash of light or whatever when he disappeared," Archer offered up as they started struggling along, forging a path toward the safehouse. "Remember when we started disappearing from the Colosseum and got dropped off back at the safehouse? Kinda like that. So he's probably got dragged off to the Colosseum."

This did absolutely nothing to assuage the gummy little majin's displeased attitude, but she did quiet down with her whining and complaining. If nothing else, she was pretty sure Zedd would come out of that intact. He was tough, she knew that all too well. Especially after that mission with the Vorticons! He'd taken some pretty serious hits down there and come out standing from everything. And besides, maybe she could tune in with the tablet or something and watch the fight! It had been a while since they'd seen each other, she was curious if Zedd had gotten any stronger in all that time.

"Hey, make sure you go a little to the south of that safehouse island and don't head straight there!" the blue girl spoke up as she was dragged along.

"And why's that, pray tell?" Cell hissed back at her.

"There's a bunch of sharp rocks and stuff around the east side! Not good to try and get through."

"Well, looks like a detour, then," Archer said with a heavy sigh. "Greeeaaat."

Colosseum Bros: moving from D18 to Safehouse D

[The Future Warrior]

The group reached the safehouse without issue. Well, without issue aside from getting completely soaked to the bone. Only one of their group seemed really bothered by this. Cell was as disgruntled as ever about everything, Graowr wasn't all that bothered once they were out of the zone of getting constant facefulls of salt. Only Archer was really bothered at the prospect of being so thoroughly soaked. Admittedly, he was the one who most had to worry about drying off and such things as that. The majin and the bio-big didn't really need to be too concerned about something like that. One of them was a horrifying abomination that would dry off in time as the water just ran off harmlessly, and the other was an oversized bug who was already mostly dry, the water dripping off his carapace.

As they settled down in the safehouse to recollect and rest for a bit after all of the troubles getting here, they all split up to scrounge and root around, gathering up what supplies there might have been. Graowr hadn't really done much looking around last time she was here, but now she took the time to do just that. That as well as wringing the excess water out of her scarf, the only part that of her wouldn't really dry off on its own.

She scurried off, darting around and snooping around the safehouse's various rooms. Checking around for anything that might be of use, stopping now and then to check and browse around the dataverse. She didn't really find much of anything that would be of use to her, specifically. Some bits of food, here and there, old dried rations and such. Which, supplemented by what she already had in her backpack. She took the time to sit down by a window, staring out at the rain while she finally got something to eat.

And she rapidly came to the realization that these 'rations' were awful.

Just chillin' in the safehouse for now.

[The Future Warrior]

She'd long since lost track of time she spent sitting there, staring out at the rain. Maybe it had been only a few minutes, maybe it had been a few hours. All she knew was that a while into it, Archer had tracker her down and mentioned he was going to be getting some sleep. Been on the island for two days already, apparently, it was getting to be about time for it. Cell didn't need the sleep, and neither did Graowr, but the bio-android had his own things to take care of. Like getting some further attention for his eye. Something about rummaging around for medical supplies in their downtime and he disappeared off into the depths of the bunker.

It left the majin alone with her thoughts and the sound of rain. She didn't mind at all, really. As she'd said on the dataverse quite recently, she liked the rain. Watching it, listening to it, even getting caught out in it. The only thing she didn't really like was fighting in it, especially at high altitudes, right in the middle of it. It made things messy. Wet and slick, hard to keep solid footing and obscuring vision. As long as she had her ki sense or scouter, the latter could be mitigated, and if she could fly, the former wouldn't be a concern either. But at the moment, she had lost so much of her ability, even something as basic as sensing ki signatures was beyond her. She couldn't quite figure out how to get that function working into her scouter, either. She'd done all the tinkering and messing with it she knew how, falling back on the basic instructions she'd been given on how to calibrate it properly for differing power ranges. It just wouldn't work. All the settings were right, it just...just didn't work.

Looking around the dataverse, asking questions, and talking to people she'd run into around the Omniverse in general, she'd started to come to some realizations about that kind of stuff, though. The main reason she couldn't get it to work right was because she couldn't do it herself, yet. She couldn't make an item that did something she couldn't do, or at least not one that just worked constantly. It was something weird about this place, the rules and physics of the Omniverse. The Omniphysics of the world, people said. The peculiar, very particular way the world Omni had created was ordered and set up. Even people who had been here for years (as far as they could tell) didn't really understand it fully.

Really, it just gave her a headache.

Somewhere among her idle time, letting her mind wander and ponder over this and that as thoughts came and went, she found herself sitting outside of the bunker proper, just at the edge of the rain. In a bout of brilliance, she'd removed her scarf and gloves, to let them dry out properly. Her boots had joined them, propped up upside down to drain. She knew it wasn't going to do much good, really, with needing to go back out into the rain and flooded not-quite-jungle sooner or later. She could jump pretty far, especially with a running start, but she doubted there were enough footholds out there for her to jump between to get back to dry land without taking another dunk. Maybe...maybe she could convince one of her two taller friends to give her a lift and keep her out of the water. At least then she'd only need to worry about the rain, and she had a coat for that sort of thing tucked safely away somewhere. It was in there...with the items she'd picked up and her tablet.

Except her tablet wasn't really stored away safely, at the moment. Currently it was in her hands, being used to do a number of things, as the whim or idea struck her. More carefully inspect the map of the island, the locations of previous drops and item alerts, observe the goings-on in other places around the island, and check in on the fights going on up in the Colosseum. There was Jak, fighting that weird bloody guy with the sword and...someone else. It was kind of crazy. Jak was going all out with some kind of transformation. And...yes, there he was! Zedd, and three others, just about to start their fight! She'd tuned in just in time to not miss anything!

Of course, she had only been watching for a few seconds before the sound of stumbling footsteps behind her dragged her out of her focus. She looked up, blinking in confusion, before turning to look back over her shoulder. There was a distinctly still somewhat soggy-looking Archer, but one who looked somewhat better after a few hours of sleep. "Oh, hey. All rested and stuff?" she asked, entirely sincerely. The only response was a wordless groan from the agent, who ran a hand tiredly over his eyes. That just earned a tilt of the head in confusion from the blue majin.

"Kind of hard to get any ssleep, in a placce like thiss." The voice was unmistakable, and its owner came slowly plodding into view moments after it spoke up. He had added a makeshift eyepatch of clean, white cloth. Probably cotton or something, maybe? She couldn't tell. But it did look to be stuffed and occupying the empty eye socket. Combined with the sunglasses, it did take...mooost of the ghastliness away from the injury. "But we're all ready to get back on the road again. As much fun as it is, ssiting around thiss placce, we're not going to find anything."

"Yeah, yeah...bug-man's right..." Archer groggily mumbled. "Should get a move on, back toward dry land." He looked out at the rain and frowned. "Though I guess 'dry' might be...nowhere, right now."

"Oh, we're heading out already?" Graowr hopped up to her feet. "Okay! Luckily it's not that far back to the beach and out of the flooded area. I think there's even some buildings and stuff we can head to to wait and keep out of the rain for a while, while we wait for the next item drops!"

"Ssuper," the bio-bug muttered, rolling his eye.

"Oh, also, hey!" Suddenly the little blue abomination held up a hand. "Could one of you carry me until we get back to shore?"

She got a near-identical stare from both of her allies of the moment. "What."

"With the rain, the water's probably gonna be rougher than before. And probably deeper too. It was pretty bad already, but now I dunno if I'll be able to really walk or keep up that well." She looked from one of them to the other, doing her best to put on a pleading expression. "Come on, just until we get back to shore?"

Several long, silent moments pass, with the small blue creature just staring, unblinkingly, from secret agent man to bio-roach man with a curious expression. Eventually, they seemed to reach an unspoken agreement, and they each lifted one hand, curled into a loose fist. In unison, they brought them up, then back down.

Archer spoke up. "One..." And they repeated the motion again.

"...two..." Cell, this time. And another repetition.

"...three!" A third time their hands came down, Cell's shifting to a flat posture, as if he was about to deliver a chop to someone. Archer had his index and middle fingers extended, spread apart.

The secret agent just grinned, while the bug-man fumed. "Fine!" he hissed, before they both dropped their arms and the bio-bug turned to leer down at Graowr. "Only until we get back to dry land. Not a ssecond longer! You hear me?"

She nodded energetically. "Yeah! I'll hop off once we get close, promise!"

"And thiss never leaves the island. I sswear." He turned away at that, lumbering off for the doorway.

As Graowr retrieved her discarded clothing articles, and Archer went to do the same, none of them noticed the Syntech camera drone, hovering by a nearby window, catching the entire thing. Turns out, it had already left the island.

Colosseum Bros: Moving out from Safehouse D to D14

[The Future Warrior]

The safehouse was now well faded into the distance behind them. Aided by the rain and increasingly choppy waters, it was only visible because the group knew quite well where it was. The slowed progress from the inclement weather was an irritant, of course. Especially for the secret agent fighting against the rough waves, and the giant walking science experiment hefting a gummy abomination on his shoulders. Graowr, for her part, was quite unbothered. She was up out of the rough, balance-ruining waves, and only had to contend with the rain battering and pelting her. And with the raincoat she'd managed to acquire from her rummaging around back in the city, she was spared from even the worst of that, although the wind and sea breezes made it less than entirely useful.

"Sso, any clues where we're going?" Cell hissed, looking this way and that. "Or are we usst going to wander around and enjoy the sscenery?"

"I thought we were headed back to dry land and then gonna hit that hotel or resort or whatever it was?" Archer spoke up, running a hand over his face to (rather futilely) push his sopping hair up out of his eyes.

"Oh, yess, right, of coursse," the great green grasshopper grumbled.

The azure demon-thing suddenly leaned forward, speaking up over the sound of wind, rain and surf. "Hey! There's more item drops coming soon!" Her voice was bright, excited, and cut right through the haze of disgruntlement already starting to set in. "According to the map, one of them should be just up ahead!" She pointed forward, more or less dead ahead at the shoreline, away from the safehouse. "It should be landing there pretty soon. The other one is..." She turned, sitting up straighter on Cell's shoulders as she scanned the horizon carefully. "...over there!" And she indicated the distant island, where the skyline of the city could be made out against the rainy backdrop. "It looks like it's pretty close to where we left the city before, just before we lost the car and stuff!"

"Great. Least we got a destination now." Archer tugged at his collar and again pushed his drenched hair out of his eyes. "Let's move before we melt out here or something.

As they redoubled their pace, Graowr was left to ponder in confusion over something. Would they really melt if they spent too long out here?

Colosseum Bros: Moving from D14 to D10

[The Future Warrior]

Even at their slow pace, thanks to the weather and flooded coastline, they made fairly quick progress. Thanks, in large part, to having a clear destination to beeline toward and no obstacles in their path, aside from the occasional submerged pit or some other underwater tripping hazard. The flooding slowly abated, starting to grow shallower as they neared the interior of the island, dropping down to let both members of the team doing the walking forge ahead without much difficulty. Beyond there, it had soon enough dropped to a shallow enough level that Graowr obligingly hopped down from Cell's shoulders, resuming the trek toward their destination on foot.

"Not much further now, I think!" she called out, bounding eagerly and quickly ahead through the diminishing water with quick, energetic hops and bounds. Secret agent and giant bug plodded along after her, resigned to focus on her overabundance of energy and let her lead the way. If nothing else, she was vibrant and easy enough to keep eyes on and hard to lose, even in this downpour making things all murky and irritating to see through.

Splashing through the last of the water, they emerged out into the outlying reaches of the jungle. More swamp than jungle proper, out this far and into the flooding, but they were getting right along. The cerulean creature even took the time to leap up into the branches of the trees, getting clear of the water and bounding this way and that among the limbs to work out her energy as well as keep them on the most direct, easy path to their goal.

"Sso...how much further is it, now?" Cell rasped, hopping up to alight on a branch next to her. His one good eye peered into the gloom ahead intently.

"Not much more. Should be just up ahead!" she said, and with a grin she bounded onward, dropping back down the ground with a wet, muddy squelch. Slipping and stumbling in the muck, she managed to stay more or less upright as she scurried on ahead.

"Hey! Wait for the guy who has to stay on the ground, would ya?!" Archer shouted, skittering along behind them. At least they were pointing out the easiest path and he wasn't tripping and slipping over wet roots or something equally absurd. Thank goodness for small favors.

Colossem Bros: Moving from D10 to D6
Awaiting item drop

[Karl Jak]

End Day 3 - Early Morning

Being Day 3 - Morning (6 am to noon)

[Sterling Archer]

Rain.

So. Much. Rain.

During our brief stint at the Safehouse we had laid out our various outfits to dry, though it scarcely mattered. It hadn’t taken long until each of us were thoroughly and completely soaked, though of course the only one really hampered by that was me. Beetle-plating and rubber bullshit skin had gotten me pretty envious. Oh well, at least I had my hair. Glorious hair.

“Oh my God,” I suddenly muttered, my eyelids flying wide. Through the drizzly early morning glow I could just barely make it out. “Please, PLEASE tell me that’s not a mirage.”

“What’s a mirage?” Graw asked, cocking a gummy brow.

“It’ss real,” Cell replied, completely ignoring the shorter humanoid’s question. “It’ss some kind of vacation placce. I think I ssaw it before.”

“Oh!” the bubblegum gal piped in. “Yeah, it’s up ahead!”

“Oh sweet God slash Omni slash Karl,” I gushed, almost tearing up. “You do care, you crazy bastard.”

Cell squinted his buggy eyes, spitting a mouthful of rainwater. “Why doess that matter? No people meanss no food and no Happy Ending masssagess.” The bugman snickered at his own comment.

“I know that, idiot,” I answered dismissively. “There’s something far more important that I’m looking for.”

“Ooooh, what is it?” Graw asked. “Did you see an item drop? Is there something mysterious about your past that we don’t know?” The abomination’s eyes were wider than I had previously thought possible, her face again severely intruding on my personal space.

“No,” I replied as my pace quickened, the building growing larger on the horizon. “A bar!”

“Are you f-AAH-cking kidding me?” the roach asked, fighting spasms. “We’re looking for itemss or weaponss with which to kill the otherss, and possibly each other, later. Your addictionss can wait.”

His words had fallen on deaf ears as I broke into a sprint, letting the sight of the resort wash over me. The hangover demons had been partying in my skull with the concussion demons for way too long. I needed this.

Colosseum Bros moving from D6 -> D3