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"Fox?! FOX?!" Oracle's voice shrieked as scrambled along the floor, scanning the room she was in. "Fox! We can't get seperated!" Oracle yelled worriedly.
"I'm over here!" Came a high pitched version of Yusuke's normal voice. Oracle frowned, turning her head to look for Fox.
"...Where?" Oracle wondered outloud, her hands shifting up by her chest as she scanned the room for the blue hair.
"Are you pawstively sure you can't see me? I am down here!" Fox's voice pipped up again and Oracle felt a tug on her skin suit by her ankle.
"Hu- HUH?!" Oracle exclaimed, crouching to peer down at the grey haired mouse with a kitsune mask on his face. "Fox?! What happened to you?"
"Shadow that way." Fox pointed behind him with his stubby little pawed arms. "It was like the coffin shadow in your palace, it managed to turn me into this and I was forced to resqueak."
"...That doesn't even make sense Inari." Oracle deadpanned
"Surely you mean 'make some squeaking sense'?" Fox's long tail flicked behind him.
"... I will kick you if you continue." She warned as Fox made a loud squeaking noise flicking his ears worriedly as a shadow burst into the room, snarling and slobbering as Futaba scooped up the mouse Fox into her hands and summoning her persona, landing comfortably in front of her screens as she dragged her fingers down the southern screen, moving the ship up and away, she hissed as she felt Fox clamber, latching onto her hair at the sudden jostle. His little paw hands tugging at her ginger strands.
"Inari stop that-!" Oracle shrieked as Fox made rapid squeaks. Oracle nearly stumbled, the ship stuttering as her hands slid away from the controls.
"Squeak squeak! Eeeee!" Fox shrieked as Oracle grit her teeth and fought for control over Prometheus. Oracle didn't even realized she turned off her translator, too focused on trying to get her and Fox away from the shadow.
Oracle hissed as the shadow rammed into the side of Prometheus, or Prometheus rammed into the side of the shadow, or the wall. It was a bit difficult to tell when Fox was squeaking loudly and scrambling onto Oracle's head.
Finally, they leveled out and Oracle exhaled when Prometheus finally was in the air and Oracle glared at Fox.
"What the heck was that?!" Oracle hissed, holding the small mouse to eye level.
"Squeak!"
"Oh, my translator isn't on hold on." Oracle stuck her tongue out as she flicked the translator on in her goggles. "Say that again?"
"My apologies Navi. Reactions happened and my body moved without prompt." Fox said formally, causing Oracle to bite back a laugh that threatened to escape.
Coughing, Oracle cleared her throat. "Was that the shadow that turned you Fox?"
"Mhm." Fox's long tail flicked behind him.
Oracle frowned. "Why have you not turned back? Usually after a battle you get turned back to normal, unless it was in Shido's palace with those stupid statues."
Fox made a noise in his throat akin to a squeaking cough. "I do not know."
"..." Oracle frowned, gently flicking Fox's ears experimentally. "I am not sure you should be on me. You could easily get turned back into a human and proceed to crush me." Oracle warned.
"I am sure, regardless I am small and cannot fight. Alongside that, I am much slower as a mouse and could lose you easily. I do not smell or see any of the others." Fox pointed out as Oracle frowned.
"Wait, that's strange. Where are the others?" She muttered as she clicked open her scanner and communicator.
"Joker come in." She waited a moment, when she only got static she tried again. "Mona! Queen! Come in!"
When that bore no fruit Oracle frowned even further. "Guys! Phantom Thieves come in!"
No reply.
"Well that's not ominous at all." Oracle remarked darkly, frowning worriedly. "No one is replying and my scanners aren't even picking up shadows. Something is messing with my persona here."
"That is not good at all." Fox remarked.
"No, its definitely not. Any shadows we encounter we'll need to avoid like the plague." Oracle replied as she landed Prometheus nearby, dispelling it as she landed neatly on the ground. "You can't fight in your state and I'm not a fighter to begin with."
Fox shifted, clambering up her shoulder and onto her head. "How will we try to find the others then?" He worried outloud.
"Safe room obviously, and when we find one we can go to the entrance." Oracle listed off. "We can meet there."
Fox made a noise as he draped himself on top of Oracle's head.
Her lips twitched upwards just barely as she tucked herself into one of the corners of the room, keeping to the shadows as she lingers along the edges.
"Shadow ahead." Fox warned her in a quiet hush as Oracle paused, watching as the lumbering brute staggered past with a grunt and a hiss to his muttered voice.
"I could of sworn they came this way…" It muttered as Oracle dashed to the next dark spot as the shadow turned left down the corridor the duo had just been in.
Oracle breathed lightly, her breath attempting to be as quiet as possible as she glanced out from the next corner. No shadow. She darted across the path and skidded into the safety of the shadows behind a crate.
"Dang, how far are we from a safe room anyways." Oracle muttered as she saw the next area. A large room greeted her with guards roaming around the maze-like halls. It was lower down, and from her angle she could see the exit and entrance, but there was also a lot of guards in that maze. (And chests, if Joker was here he would be bounding for joy at the sight of all those chests ripe for the taking.)
Oracle, on instinct, attempted to reach out to locate a safe room, only to be met with that frustrating static. Right, her persona's out of commission until they can get rid of whatever it is stopping her.
Scanning the room, she got distracted when Fox spoke up.
"Up there." He squeaked, tugging on one of Oracle's hair strands to raise her gaze to a platform above. On the platform was a raised radio-like tower, with a big satellite dish pointed up at the window that cast light from the outside down. Wires ran from the dish into the main body and down the platform into the maze, most likely it had generators. Probably generators they'll have to turn off to turn that thing off.
"That's probably what is cutting off my connection." Oracle realized quietly. "Ughh, we need to go into the maze to turn that thing off don't we?" She grumbled as she pushed off from the wall to stand at the viewing deck that overlooked the maze.
Its a shame she doesn't have any paper or something, she could really use it to make a map of the maze. Alas, she only has her persona that can do that and currently it didn't work. Clearly she should bring paper or something for cases like this. (Very clearly rare cases, because this has never happened before!)
"..." Fox, the dang mouse, only stayed silent as he lingered just between her shoulder and her neck.
"Fox?"
"Squeak."
"... Very helpful." Oracle muttered as she jumped into the maze, her boots hitting the metal floor as she tucked into a roll and ducked behind a banister that crackled to life next to her.
"Squeak squeak!" Fox replied, his nose poking into Oracle neck as she shuddered at the cold object.
Tucking her head, Oracle exhaled as she shimmied herself down the hallway past one of the various guards who grumbled and hissed as they walked the same paths up and down.
"Squeak! Squeak!" Fox tugged Oracle's hair sharply to the left. Trusting Fox's judgement, Oracle followed, nearly tripping over a wire as they stumbled onto their first… well generator looking thing. It was big, heavy and shook around as it worked. Oracle shifted, her hand grasping around the handle as she crouched to its level.
"I've never seen an old generator before." She mused as she flicked open the panel and stared at the buttons that greeted her. "... Fox, I choose you." She declared, plucking the little mouse off her shoulder and holding it out in distance that he can randomly hit buttons and click levers.
Soon enough, like almost all electronics not built 20 years ago when encountering Fox, it burst into sparks and smoke started to pour out of it as a fire started. Tucking Mouse Fox close, Oracle made a run for it, jumping over a shadow that had moved to take a closer look, who yelped in reply and shouted 'intruder!' right as Futaba darted around the corner and out of sight.
Exhaling, Futaba opened her palm, biting back a giggle at the dizzy Fox in her hands as he spun around like a top, his tail twisting behind him as he plopped onto her palms flat.
"Squeak… squeak squeak." Fox complained dizzily as Oracle cast him an apologetic look.
"Sorry Fox." Oracle paused as she regarded him, tilting her head as she considered if she wanted to follow through with a plan or not.
Deciding to do so, Oracle leaned forward, pressing her lips against the soft fur on the back of Fox's well… back.
The little mouse stiffened, his tail twitching as Futaba pulled back. She gave a nervous grin before she raised her hands to let him leap back onto her shoulder. Standing up on slightly shakey legs, she glanced out of the corner she was hunched down in, wincing at the sight of the guards stalking down the hallways, their masks like menacing warnings as their feet hit the floor loudly like bangs.
Oracle took a left, then a right. She hissed when she came across a dead end, only to nearly stagger out of a shadow that had lunged for her. "Where did you come from?!" Oracle remarked as she took off sprinting, alas, she has very little stamina, so when she saw an area she could throw herself into and tuck herself enough to vanish from sight, Futaba took it, rolling under the ledge and holding her breath as the pounding boots of the shadow turned the corner down the hall. Exhaling, Oracle moved, she barely poked a finger out when she yanked it back at the heavy drawl of metal boots against stone as a guard lumbered past with a rumbling hissing disapproving tone. From what Oracle could tell of his boots, he seemed clad in unique armor, most likely a very strong miniboss.
Oracle sharply exhaled, pulling herself out when the boss bro passed, shaking out the dust that clung to her outfit.
"Man, they are not joking around…" She muttered as Fox squeaked in reply, his (Very cold!) nose pressing into her cheek.
Oracle exhaled. "Lets see… thats one, by basic video game logic there would be three in total." She exhaled as she stared wandering. Every sound had her ducking behind a wall to peer out in case of any enemies lingering there.
"Lets see.. it was on the west side…" Oracle muttered to herself as she passed under arches and lines. She lingered by the edge of a pit, frowning as she stared down at it. "Yeah… lets avoid that pit of probably inevitable death…" She declared softly as she turned and made a large circle around it.
"Squeak!" Fox demanded, causing Orace to pause as the mouse person leap off.
"Fox-!" Oracle yelped when he leap because Thats too high-!, only to breathe in relief as he landed harmlessly on the ground and ran to a small hole.
"A mouse hole?" Oracle murmured. "Go and enter it Fox."
Fox squeaked in reply, squeezing into the hole.
Oracle lingered around it, unable to do much else other then fiddle her fingers and wait. A few minutes passed by, and she heard a commotion. She shoved herself into a corner as shadows ran past snarling and hissing. Fox remerged a few minutes later squeaking incidently.
"Let me guess, you destroyed another one?" Oracle cut him off, grinning when he bobbed his head. "I saw. Those Shadows got whipped into a boss rush stage! Come on! Logic states only one more should be around here somewhere…"
She scooped up the small mouse, (making sure to avoid the pit that was in the room next door) and started off, keeping her eyes peeled as as warily made her way through the maze.
A few minutes later as she hissed, tucking herself against a wall as she stared at the last generator.
"... dangit.." She muttered as she stared down at the same different colored shadow that stood in their path. The shadow had that aura, he was definitely a mini-boss.. and neither of them could fight, but there was no signs of how they could get past him otherwise.
"Alright, here's the plan…" Oracle started slowly. "I distract him and you get past him to get rid of that generator, then we run."
Fox squeaked as Oracle took a few steps, depositing Fox to the side.
"Hey uh-" Oracle stuttered when the shadow's gaze turned on her. Time to channel her inner Joker. Unfortunately, he was very quiet right now…
"Intruder!" The guard hissed.
"Uhm… N-no?" Oracle took a step back suddenly nervous.
"You. Will. PERISH!" The guard, unperturbed, hissed as he transformed into… some kind of creature with a giant maw??
Oracle wrinkled her nose. "Dude, close your mouth. You seriously need a breath mint…" She muttered as the shadow lunged.
It sent a blue light, a nuclear shadow then, at her, and she winced as it collided with her ankle.
"Ow ow ow. How do they not wince at every attack?" Oracle muttered as she had to weave back and forth as the shadow attacked her.
It slammed into her, sending her crashing into a wall. Sharp pain invaded her side as she bit back a hiss, staggering up shakingly before her legs gave out. Letting her collaspe to the floor with a hiss.
Shutting her eyes, she waited for unconciousness to hit, but it didn't come. Instead there were sounds of spattering sparks and… sword clanging?
Weakly, she opened her eyes, blinking in surprise at the sight. Fox, in his full human glory, was slicing and freezing the shadow, standing protectively in front of her. In the back of her mind, Prometheus warned her about its weakness to gun attacks.
Her persona was back! Thank god!
"Fox! Use your gun! Its weak against gun!" Oracle shouted, Fox nodded, pulling out his rifle and shooting the shadow, letting it fall to the ground with a thud.
"Time to end this." Fox declared, lunging into an attack, slamming his sword down into the shadow's chest, skidding to a halt and doing his usual battle attack final pose gracefully.
"Fox! You're back to normal size!" She exclaimed, hobbering on one leg to Fox who turned to her, moving to catch her.
"You are injured." Fox declared, pulling out a canned drink from the shared bag. He clicked it open, pushing it against her lips. Oracle's lips parted, letting him pour the drink down into her mouth, her throat bobbing as she swallowed the bubbly liquid.
"Ugh.." Oracle muttered. Then, she startled as a voice blared on her communicator.
"Guys! Signal returned!" Skull shouted, causing the both of them to startle.
"Yeah.. no thanks to you guys.." Oracle complained. "Fox and I had to work together to get rid of all these generators."
"Our apologies. Queen and I got stuck between two very strong shadows as mice." Noir exclaimed.
"I dealt with a generator over here also." Joker replied. "Mona is with me as well."
"Where's Panther?" Queen spoke up worriedly.
"I'm fine!" Panther's reply came swift. "I've been waiting in the safe room!"
"Safe room? I'm looking for your location." Oracle exclaimed, pulling out Prometheus to do a scan. "I found you! I'm sending coords to everyone, lets regroup!"
Fox rubbed at his nose. "How could this brie?"
"Fox, I swear to god-" Oracle hissed. "You're not a mouse anymore!"
Fox only huffed. "How prepawserous."
"... Lets regroup quickly."
"Yeah, preferably before Oracle murders Fox. I don't want to be the only strong hitter." Skull replied in agreement to Queen's words.