[center][h3]Same Old Story - The Fourth Turn[/h3]
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Ganondorf’s [@Double], Ms. Fortune
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3,153
[b]Exp:[/b] +4[/center]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”What’s this?”[/color] Kamek exclaimed, confused as his body was surrounded by a swarm of strange bugs, ones that oddly enough they seemed to be doing nothing but being rather freaky.

[color=Aqua]”You alright Kamek?”[/color] Rika called over from where she had landed after bailing out on the attempted tonberry delivery run.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Seems so, which is its own kind of concerning”[/color] he replied, before deciding that [color=DeepSkyBlue]”So I shall back off and prepare for the worst”[/color] 

To do so the mage first teleported back up to the top floor of the prison, and then used the rather long period before detonation to create 4 copies of himself (which the flies promptly spread doo, giving warning of how they worked). He then proceeded to turn 3 into green mages, which promptly stacked defense buffs on him, along with a white mage which healed up the damage he’d taken from the failed tonberry attack. When the lantern finally exploded, it did so in a larger area than he expected, but with all his preparation the blast was entirely manageable.

He wasn’t the only one able to restore himself unfortunately, as the Oberon warframe promptly showed off by restoring both it and its master’s health. Rika, despite having befitited from this many battles before, considered this most unfair, and promptly switched targets, maneuvering thrusting into the fray alongside Ganondorf with a call of [color=Aqua]”Backing you up!”[/color]   

Her medium of doing so was to go all guns blazing, gauntlets held up with palms facing forwards, unleashing blasts of burning goop that detonated in mid air, rifle fire, while her rigging blasted out disruption globs, and her hangers unleashed a swarm of shocking bugs. Alongside her she deployed her cloyster striker, which added a rapid fire burst of 5 icicle spears to the mix. The ensuing barrage caught Oberon as he went to resume his dance with Ganondorf, landing a handful of status-inducing shots. With his Sybaris still in his hands instead of Silva & Aegis,the warframe couldn’t block, instead rolling away from Rika’s onslaught.

Somewhere in between Therion and Rika’s interventions, Ganondorf felt himself approaching his last legs. Just being in proximity to Oberon incurred near constant radiation damage. And adding on top whatever attacks Oberan landed, it all left the Gerudo King finally beginning to reconsider his strategy or lack thereof. For a moment he considered assuming his true form, but decided against it - not wanting to waste it on a warframe that at the end of the day was just a peon to the main enemy. So instead he quickly pulled out his last strong instant health potion and downed it. That at least undid a lot of the damage he’d suffered. But he didn’t go back on the attack, Ganondorf instead finally cooling off, choosing to reassess the situation.

With Kamek protecting himself and Rika switching targets, that left only Bowser out of the Troop still facing Robin, and his own back up dropped by one when Nadia was put to sleep. 

The king promptly caught her with a [color=FD0000]”I got you” [/color] before she fell apart on the floor, and then after realizing Kamek wasn’t around to order his toadies about, used his trowlon striker as a self propelled stretcher, laying her on it and then having it fly over to the area the sleepers where being stored. Of course, now he and the others knew that Robin could hurt every sleeper no matter where they were, and that realization spurred the Seekers to action.

Then he promptly slammed his fist into his own shell, causing glowing cracks to form all over it as he gave up defense for offense, and then re-engaged Robin with a new and surprising burst of speed, mixing up claw swipes followed by bursts of fire breath. While the King tried to blitz down their foe, the entirely forgotten by everyone Tonberry had picked itself up, and began to waddle towards that same foe, it’s deceptively plain knife raised to strike just as soon as it caught up.

[hider=Jr dream - Stage Three]
[color=SpringGreen]”Why won’t you stay dead! How many one ups did you farm?!”[/color] Jr yelled horsley, while surrounded by dead marios. Yet the 2 hit wonder still kept coming, this latest one sliding in on his belly wearing a [url=https://i.imgur.com/ASjTqTM.png]penguin suit[/url], avoiding the metal spike Jr had fired at him the moment he had sensed movement in the process.

Then the plumber hopped to his feet, and began to hurl ice balls at the prince, freeze-burning his scales before he formed an iron shield to protect himself. Unfortunately raw iron was very conductive, and just like the fireballs before them, it rapidly shifted temperature, cooling immensely and rapidly sapping the strength from his arm far faster than it should. Unable to hold it up, the prince was quickly prevented from keeping up this guard, his shield dropping to the ground, and arm to his side, completely limp from fatigue. 

The rest of his body wasn’t doing much better, but he still pushed himself to keep fighting. He leapt to try and get away from the frost balls, and as he flew through the air he breathed in, charging fire, before spitting a fireball back at the plumber when he landed.

It missed.

Agile as ever, the plumber leapt over the shot and up onto a low wall, which he began running along while continuing to try and pelt the prince with ice shots. The prince was forced to duck behind another one to avoid being frozen to death. Once behind it he grabbed his frozen arm, shaking it violently in an attempt to get it to work again, before shoving frostbitten fingers into his mouth and burning them with his own fire.

When the plumber slid around the corner, he came face to face with a prince holding a ruined hand with the other, and then face to face with a burst of metal shrapnel. With a distinctive wup wup wup the plumber lost his power up, but was not dissuaded, instead coming at the prince with first and boot till a lucky claw swipe took him down.

Panting hard, one arm dead from fire, ice, and mana burn, the prince tried to use his other to hold himself up, only to fail and slump against the wall. In no state to face the latest Mario, this one accompanied by [url=https://i.imgur.com/eKQ1mbj.png]eight mini hims[/url] and yet even so, he tried to push himself up with a near inaudible taunt of [color=SpringGreen]”come on, whats, what’s nine more?”[/color] only for his arm to give out, along with his body.

The prince fell to the floor, consciousness fading … and then he woke up.
[/hider]

[hider=Ms Fortune’s Dream - Stage One]For once, Nadia failed to land on her feet. Before she even hit the ground, a terrible heaviness settled over her, far weightier and more inescapable than gravity. It felt like sinking deep underwater, or being blackout drunk, as her muscles went slack for want of oxygen and her mind shut down. In a way, it was a great relief, all her pain and stress sliding away into a sweet oblivion. Then she smacked into the floor, and though her general numbness masked the pain somewhat, the impact was sudden and surprising to bring her to her senses and jolt her awake.

Or was she awake? The sounds of magic, technology, and battle had instantly given way to a dreadful silence. Raising her head from where she’d fallen, Nadia opened her eyes and recognized nothing. Though still underground, and reminiscent of a prison, she’d wound somewhere new. Or more accurately, she’d been [i]sent[/i] somewhere new. For a moment her memory had been hazy as her mind struggled to recollect itself, but the details of the fight with Robin Goodfellow quickly came back. He did something to her, that much was clear. On high alert, she picked herself off the ground, scoping out the area. It looked to her almost like some kind of arena, surrounded by a couple levels of cell block. There were no guards or prisoners, though. She could hear nothing but the tense inhale and exhale of her own breath, and see no movement except motes of dust in the air. Though the more she peered at them rather than past them, those motes seemed strange. They shone softly, and they bore beautiful, intricate geometric patterns, rather like snowflakes. The more Nadia thought and remembered, the more sure she felt. “Is this…am I dreaming?”

“You’d have to be.” A cruel, smug, teasing voice. Delivered with an air of upper-class sophistication and superiority. Nadia turned in an instant. Second ago there had definitely been nobody there, and she hadn’t even heard the disturbed air currents of an aerial approach, but now a [url=https://i.imgur.com/Dk80L5R.png]woman[/url] leaned against the wall. She wore a black cocktail dress, a cape shaped like a doily, a white opera glove on one arm and a huge drum-fed shotgun on the other. Behind her dark veil, a vicious smile that sent an icy chill down Nadia’s spine, freezing her in place with a look of unmasked horror on her face. “Poor little alley cat. How long has it been since I filleted that family of yours? Yet here you are. The one who got away.” Pushing herself off the wall, she put one hand on her hip and swaggered forward, slowly. “You know, if they really meant that much to you, why didn’t you hunt me down? An avenging daughter, dead set on righteous retribution…yet you never even tried. You just frittered away your carefree days in Little Innsmouth with [i]other[/i] Dagonians.” She stopped, putting her hand in front of her veiled face as she tittered. “Heehee. Did I really scare you that badly? Or…did you just not care? This fish or that fish, it’s all the same to a cat, isn’t it? Whatever nets you a full-!”

“MRRRAH!” Nadia hurled herself forward, her face one of abject hatred. Black Dahlia turned, bringing her cape up as a shield, and as Nadia’s claws sliced through it she teleported a couple dozen feet away. “SHUT UP! I’m not scared of you! I’ll kill you, right here, right now!” Nadia was screaming, spittle flying as she charged in incoherent rage. “I’ll slice you to pieces and make you BEG for it!” Dahlia produced a handful of giant shotgun shells, flipped them into the air, and caught them in her gun to load it. Behind her veil was a nasty grin, but Ms Fortune wasn’t smiling.[/hider]

Primrose's gaze had been fixed to Nadia as she succumbed to sleep, then forcibly to the afflicted shining form of Kamek. Once the Koopa left, she could refocus on their enemies in the room. She blinked away the bright spots from her eyes, noted that Bowser had got Ms. Fortune out of the immediate danger zone, and turned right back around to face Robin once more. The Seekers had been sustaining damage, herself included from the pot shots Titania had been sending their way, and many of their healing sources were asleep or gone at the moment. That power Robin had used on the sleeping was particularly worrisome. Primrose remained, and with a dance she could spread the healing flame of Warmth to all of her allies... if doing that had crossed her mind at all. She wasn't in quite such a rage as Ganondorf, but she was single-mindedly focused on taking down the archangel all the same. His defeat would mean he would be unable to keep casting his tricks. Her eyes flickered to the diamonds collecting around his head, and though unsure what they meant the mystery didn't dissuade her from attacking.

She called on her magic again, this time while Boosting herself. Her body's glow flickered against the shadows in her hand. Her arm trembled with the effort of condescending and empowering her magic.

[center][hider=Primrose Level Up]New Strength: [b]Dark Magic Mastery.[/b] The power and potency of Primrose's innate dark elemental spells has increased. She also has gained access to the spells [b]Dirge of Dusk[/b] (deals dark element damage to a foe up to 3 times and lowers their resistance to dark element) and [b]Spell Song[/b] (deals dark element damage to all foes in a wide area and lowers their physical and magical defenses).
***[/hider][/center]
The shadows surged into each other, creating three dark spheres by way of the spell Dirge of Dusk overhead. Primrose released her hold on them, flinging her hand forward as though she was throwing them at Robin, and the spheres obeyed. [color=D34C25]"Suffer!"[/color] The stygian orbs, heavy and thick as the night itself, crashed against Robin’s form, threatening to smother him in darkness.

Therion gladly let Rika take his place facing off against Oberon, shifting targets himself to the other warframe after being freed from the lantern spell's pull. He sprinted around the long way towards Titania, intending to flank her while Jesse, the only other Seeker engaging her, was on her other side. His feline body propelled him along all the faster, and when he leapt at Titania it was with blade brandished and the claws on both his paws extended to maximize the slashes aimed at her.  

From what he'd seen so far, both warframes were incredibly quick - enough so to evade and be able to recover afterwards. Hopefully more pressure from more combatants could better break through their defense, even if it did mean less people contending with the archangel. Restricting their movements was another option. Therion followed through with his attack on Titania by stowing the blade, rounding on her again. He bared his fangs, reared up and let out a loud, paralyzing roar.

Having noticed Therion incoming, Jesse shifted so that she was on the exact opposite side of Titania. The Warframe was fast no doubt, but Jesse could cover a short gap nearly instantly with Evade. Jesse was glad to have the help because while she was holding her own, she wasn’t able to stop Titania from shooting at her allies. Jesse ripped a heavy chunk of pillar up and then let it float by her menacingly. Titania knew the Launched projectiles could barely be dodged on reaction. And Jesse was only going to Launch it once Therion had done his work, or Titania had somehow avoided it.

[hider=Sectonia’s Dream - Stage Two]
Not knowing what this warrior of the lower realm was, Sectonia was just fighting shadows. Even if she crushed it with her lightning or her axe, it would just dissipate into shadow to coalesce into another shape and begin again. And when she summoned her Antlers to fight it, she just found that was a poor choice as the hero’s shadow would swoop in and absorb one of them, gaining its elemental powers and using them against the Queen. 

[color=92278f]”How many times must I crush you before this ends?”[/color] Sectonia said, her various defensive powers gained from the objects and spirits she had absorbed so far making her tougher for this shadow to take out, although unknown to her, this was just making her sleep for longer. And this seemingly endless battle vs what was an inscrutable foe was making her extremely angry.[/hider]

Titania had a lot going for her, but battlefield awareness wasn’t necessarily one of them. Unlike Oberon, she hadn’t been summoned here to heal or protect Robin Goodfollow. Her role was the hunter, weakening his attackers one by one before going in for the kill. That meant zeroing in on her target of choice, even if Jesse was taking more time to chew through than she thought. That also meant that when a second vicious tiger jumped Titania out of the blue, she did not see him coming. While she was busy taking potshots at Jesse, Therion’s cutting edges carved into her as he struck her in passing. Though his slashes didn’t reach her bio-metal exoskeleton, they just about wiped out her shield. As the two rounded one another, the barrel of Titania’s Corinth shotgun a deadly promise the moment it aligned with Therion’s chest. In the nick of time the thief managed to save his own skin by paralyzing his foe at the speed of sound, which left her at a standstill just long enough for Jesse to pound her with a slab of rubble. 

That hefty projectile did a lot of damage, blowing through the remnants of Titania’s shield and way into her health. It also knocked her down, even if she sprang back up with an ukemi the next moment. Wanting to avoid more hits like that, she began to pick up speed right away. Faced with two agile and punishing opponents, she used Tribute to extract a buff from Therion. The ability dealt a little damage and gave her Dust, which would passively decrease the accuracy of her enemies for the next twelve seconds. Corinth in hand, she began to fire off explosive grenades to keep her enemies on their toes without having to aim as she built up momentum.

Though the sight of seeing their hard work undone might induce despair in the average fighter, the Seekers were not dissuaded by Oberon’s healing. If anything, his Renewal galvanized them into attacking all the more viciously. Bowser slashed Robin’s papery form with raking claws and scorched it with guttural flame, followed shortly by the threefold dark eruption of Primrose’s Dirge of Dusk. Yet, strange as it might seem, that all paled in comparison to what happened the moment Robin stepped up to take its turn. The tiny, unassuming green goober summoned so long ago had finally reached its target, and once the tonberry lifted its carving knife, it stabbed the blade into Robin’s hoof.

The disproportionate burst of damage that caused was enough to stagger Robin, bringing the archangel to its knees even if just for a moment. That assault more than made up for Oberon’s healing, leaving Robin at about half health. For the moment though, that was all. With Sectonia, Junior, and Nadia asleep, Kamek gone, and Therion, Ganondorf, Rika, and Jesse fighting the warframes, only Bowser and Primrose were left to oppose the main threat. After a moment Robin stood and took action. First it used Trick, randomly inflicting Resonance ⅓ on Bowser. For a brief moment a sensation of glasslike fragility coursed through his body, accompanied by the sound of vibrating glass. Then Robin glared at Primrose, and the dancer knew what was coming. A shower of Fairy Dust fell on her, and she plunged once more into the depths of sleep where her hated enemy awaited her. That left just one koopa standing against Robin as two more diamonds in its halo filled in. Now only two remained unlit.