[center][h3]Same Old Story - the Fifth 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] 2898 (+3)[/center]

[hider=Primrose's Dream II]When Primrose found herself in the same eerily quiet arena again, she already knew what was in store for her. As soon as her eyes opened her gaze found her foe, and her dagger found its way to her hand. Simeon was standing in the room's center, his arms tucked behind his back as though he'd been waiting for Primrose. When their eyes met, he smiled pleasantly.

"Unable to resist the poet's pull, the dancer returns to the stage. Even though she knows--"

The start of his monologue was cut off by a clipped cry of pain as Primrose's Vengeful Spirit blew through his body. She did not intend to entertain the man whatsoever - no speeches, no plays, false Simeon or no. She gave him only a cold stare swiftly followed by the threat of her dagger. The blade nearly sunk into his chest, caught at the last second by Simeon wrapping his hand around Primrose's wrist. Their struggle was brief. Changed as she was, Simeon could not overpower Primrose; neither could he trip her up again like the last round. He moved to disengage and draw his own weapon. He conjured his dark magic to force distance between them, but Primrose pursued. She raised an arm to haphazardly shield herself from his spell and charged forward through it.

[color=D34C25]"You're not going anywhere,"[/color] she said. Her Hippowdon appeared and snatched Simeon by the leg with its Crunch attack, stopping his retreat. At the same time her Makami manifested and wrapped its long, papery body around the man's throat and sink its Double Fang into him.

"Prim...rose...!" Simeon gasped. He'd been surprised, but even hurt and choking he still looked amused. Primrose wanted to see him begging for his life, but instead it seemed like he was almost excited to see what would happen next. That she would happily let him know.

Primrose's dagger found its mark as Simeon tore the Makami from his neck. She sunk the dagger into the left side of his chest, seeking his heart. [color=D34C25]"I'm going to kill you,"[/color] she told him simply, her voice low. [color=D34C25]"And when everything is over I'll kill the real you, too."[/color]

Blood gurgled out of Simeon's mouth as she twisted the blade. He smiled through it, his eyes glittering dangerously.

"Is that so? That is what your father wanted for you?" Simeon paused, wheezing as she pushed the dagger further in. Then he chuckled. "I would love to see the darkness in you, Primrose."

[color=D34C25]"You will."[/color][/hider]
Bowser Jr woke up to a mess. His body hurt, though not from the wounds from his dreams. Someone or something had kicked him while he was down, apparently, and had gotten past the idle horde of dr bones standing around where he had been laying to do so. Laying beside him were two others still sleeping, and as he glanced out at the battlefield, he saw another, Primrose, falling as well, which a strangely shimmering like glass Bowser promptly grabbed to prevent falling to the ground. Then he did his best to back up and get away while holding her, which was going to be tricky with no one to keep Robin pinned down.

There where others fighting, but they were all tied up by the two agile humanoids, be it because they where a threat, or because they were, in Ganondorf’s case, vindictively going after them due to being nuisances that they couldn’t hurt.

[i][color=SpringGreen]”Yeesh, you take a quick nap and everything goes wrong,”[/color][/i] the prince thought to himself, before calling out [color=SpringGreen]”Ganondorf! Leave that thing to Rika and back up my papa! Stop that count down!”[/color] to try and get the king of evil on a target he was better suited for.

Rika, hearing this, moved to make sure Ganondorf could safely disengage, charging up a Vault Breaker punch and then using it to lunge towards Oberon to tie him down in melee. He switched to his melee weapon in time to block the big slug with his shield, though its strength jarred him. Then while that gauntlet was rebooting, she summoned her long spear into the other one, and brought it around in a wide sweep to strike at the warframe with the sharpened spines on its spear head. Finally she summoned her knight striker, and had him either block or bash with his shield depending on what was needed. Oberon fought toe-to-toe with the both of them, the wide swings of his golden mace leaving trails of blue flame as it danced from side to side. Though he prioritized offense over defense and took the slices to prove it, he gave Rika as good as he got.

With the tactical situation cleared up a bit, Jr turned to the sleeping situation, raising an empty hand and then pausing, realizing he didn’t have his paint brush to use as a spell catalyst. He glanced around again, and spotted it laying where he had dropped it somewhere in the middle of the room.

Thinking quickly, he plucked a pokeball from his bandolier and threw it across the room, where it landed next to the brush and released Dazzle the Brionne. The pokemon glanced around the room, and then behind himself at his trainer, who called for him to [color=SpringGreen]”Toss me that brush!”[/color], an order that he quickly obeyed, popping his clown nose under it, tossing it over head onto his sea lion tail, and then using that to catapult it clear across the room and into the prince’s awaiting hand.

[color=SpringGreen]”Got it! Good job! Now blast the big guy!”[/color] jr called back with praise and new commands, prompting Dazzle to turn back around and to start forming and catapulting orbs of water at the papery Robin. He was joined in this by a surprise re-appearance of Kamek, who having weathered the explosive end of the insectoid curse, now returned to the fray. Having empowered his own defense to do so, he now dared to get in close, before blasting Robin with 4 short ranged lasers. Their special beams and projectiles all connected, helping out the group effort to wear the archangel down, but they didn’t quite get the results of Bowser, Nadia, Sectonia, and Primrose. Still, by getting close Kamek provoked Robin into smacking him rather than using Trick or Treat, so that was something.

While his pokemon and mentor covered his papa, Jr released his other pokemon, Mimi, and told her to [color=SpringGreen]”Mimic me!”[/color] to which his minion responded with a nod of its fake head. Only then did he raise his paintbrush and cast, [color=SpringGreen]”Esuna”[/color] upon the sleeping Sectonia, awakening her from slumber. 

There were a number of things that kept Ganondorf on the backfoot these past several moments. Whether it was the razorflies swarming Kamek that prevented the Gerudo King from focusing on the object of his ire, the appearance of Rika giving him a surprising moment of respite, or just the sheer amount of damage the man had suffered just from being in close proximity to Oberon - let alone the actual damage the warframe’s attacks had dealt. It all left Ganondorf in what felt like a long moment of pause.

It was Junior of all people whose voice snapped him out of it. The first thing he did was re-summon his Moblin Archers and leave them there to provide cover fire for Rika and Junior. Then he finally had the wherewithal to shift his focus.

He moved his gaze over to where Robin Goodfellow appeared to be preparing some kind of spell or ritual. Whatever that was, it certainly wasn’t going to be good. He wondered for a moment if he should have assumed his true form, but was quick to dismiss the idea. He wouldn’t need it, Ganondorf decided. It would be a waste to use it on this filth.

The Gerudo King broke away from the engagement with Oberon as soon as Rika gave him the opportunity. Then he broke into a sprint directly toward Robin. All those blows he traded with Oberon had charged up his Swords of Darkness quite nicely. And now he saw what he believed was a perfect target to unleash it all on, [color=797979]”Ngah!!”[/color] he grunted, hurling both swords at Robin once he was within range. That was just a feint, though. Ganondorf’s actual attack came in the form of him lifting up and then dropping back down onto Robin’s general area while channeling all his charged up darkness through his hands so that he let loose the biggest dark explosion he could muster, [color=797979]”DIE!”[/color]

Jesse and Therion continued their fight with Titania. “Gotta wrap this up!” Jesse said to Therion as they put the pressure on Titania. That was a good hit from her rocks and his slashes but they needed more. Firing, she noticed the effect of Dust as her bullets went wide. Titania was trying to get going again, but fortunately, Jesse still had Energy, having saved it up as the fight got started. Jesse sidestepped the first explosive, getting caught by the edge of it. On the second one she reached out her hand, and as soon as it left the barrel of her gun she flung it right back into Titania to blow her up. That, Jesse knew, wouldn’t miss. The grenade detonated in Titania’s face, its Blast decking her with a hard knockdown. 

With dwindling energy and few other options, Titania unveiled her ultimate ability. In a burst of fae magic she shrank down to a fourth of her original size, becoming a pixie in possession of permanent flight and a 50% evasion boost. In her hands she held [url=https://i.imgur.com/4tpQT7f.png]Dex Pixia[/url], and despite their small size, the gilded pistols were Exalted Weapons that packed one hell of a punch. At the same time six razorflies exactly as big as her appeared to run interference for her, slashing with their wings. With Razorwing engaged, Titania was the ultimate glass cannon, more than capable of slicing her attackers to ribbons if they didn’t swat her fast enough.

Therion agreed with Jesse that they had to take care of the warframe sooner rather than later. He had to assume that she was just as powerful, even shrunken down, and now that she was harder to hit and had further protection he didn't want to take any chances that she might slip through their attacks and do some serious harm. There were a couple of things he could think of to do, but with little time to actually think about them he went with the absolute best he had in his arsenal: his divine skill.

He transformed from beast to man while in motion, rolling into a kneel. The aura surrounding him fluctuated and glowed brilliantly, signaling the use of his Battle Boost. Aeber's Reckoning was unleashed swiftly - the air around him distorted for a moment and the dagger assault burst through the room, ripping through any and all of the enemies in its wide range. With their sheer volume, those knives pierced a couple of the razorflies straight through, reducing the overall distractions with appreciable haste. Only one dagger managed to hit Titania, however, and that wasn’t enough to put her down.

Hoping that would take care of the interfering razorflies at the very least, if not blasting Titania herself, Jesse pulled out her secondary Toolgun and switched it to Inflate. The Toolgun had a fast rate of fire and no recoil, so she aimed and began spamming blue beams in the deadly pixies direction. Each shot would increase Titania’s size if they connected, though Jesse no doubt made a few stones and fallen pillars behind or next to Titania a bit bigger in the process. Which Jesse then used with Launch, lifting two large disc like boulders and hurling them at Titania with all her telekinetic might. With an instantaneous travel time, the Toolgun shots’ only problem was accuracy. Small and fast, Titania was very hard to hit, and as she flew her Dex Pixia roared, pumping Therion’s hide and Jesse’s shield with lead. The volume of Toolgun shots meant that some would hit, but not enough to make the launched boulders connect. It soon became apparent that the Seekers wouldn’t win this shootout by eliminating Titania, but by surviving until her finite well of energy had run dry.

By now, despite the terrible situation at the end of the last exchange, the scales had started to tip back in the Seekers’ favor. Both warframes were otherwise engaged, leaving Robin alone, and while a barrage from some of the oppositions’ lesser damage-dealers didn’t phase it, Ganondorf’s Swords of Darkness sure did. That unholy eruption sent Robin reeling, and as it staggered backward, it knew that it couldn’t take an assault like that again. The archangel sent Ganondorf to slumberland with Fairy Dust as fast as it could, then cast Treat on itself. It got the random buff Spring-loaded, which was useful but not the windfall it needed. Still, its attackers would get what was coming to them soon enough. As the last two diamonds in Robin’s halo were filled, the whole ring of ten began to pulsate violently. If the Seekers wanted to stop its Angelic Attack, it was now or never.

Sectonia woke up thanks to Jr. And she was not having any of this thing’s crap. [color=92278f]”Thanks. I’m going to finish off this farce.”[/color] Sectonia said, uninjured thanks to her Chaos Shield unlike what Jr. had to deal with, and went back into the room. She had a plan for this. Sectonia summoned her Florami striker alongside some of her red Antlers to cause chaos and hide her a bit while she enacted her plan, a fully charged reality shatter on all of this. With the warframes preoccupied and a wall of minions, both her own and the other seekers, in front of her, she was going to end this in a flashy finish.

[hider=Ms Fortune’s Dream - Stage Two]The struggle quickly escalated into a vicious back-and-forth as Nadia strove to rush her archenemy down and tear her limb from artificial limb, while Dahlia worked to keep her at arm’s length. There were no lines drawn in this fight; instead it took them from one side of the underground gulag to the other in the blink of an eye, the still air filled with the thunder of gunfire and the screech of maddened voices. The Medici’s number-one hitwoman revealed a hoard of hidden weapons built into her body, from literal stilettos in her high-heeled shoes to sawblades, sawed-offs, beartraps, and even gun barrels beneath her prosthetic kneecaps.

Each new trick set Nadia back in her relentless and unforgiving, a painful thorn in her side. In her numb anger, however, the feral barely even felt it. Thanks to Dahlia, she barely felt anything anymore; she was not the same cat burglar she’d been when Black Dahlia butchered her. Though that experience literally tore her to pieces, she’d come back stronger, and her travels through the World of Light had only made her more powerful since then. The ability to rely on others had been one of this world’s greatest gifts, but with nobody else stuck in this dream alongside her, her fusions served her just as well. Rhodeia’s Hydro Mimicry meant that she was never quite alone, able to gang up on Dahlia and hem her in, while Massachusetts’ rigging turned the blood she spilled into even greater mobility and firepower. Cat-5 gave her the shock factor she needed to close the distance on Dahlia whenever she teleported away, Kronya fueled her slashes with extra lethality, and Kanna lent her a tiger’s savage strength.

No matter how many elemental slugs or hidden blades wounded her, Nadia chased Dahlia down, opened her up, and made it count. Soon the gulag’s floor was littered with broken or discarded weapons, splatters of blood, and shreds of the assassin’s outfit. The writing was on the wall when the feral’s tiger claws carved off Dahlia’s gun arm, but when she baited out an Infinity Burst, the fight seemed well and truly over. Nadia finished her opponent off with an air combo that ended in a New Moon-triggering Feral Edge that plunged her boxcutter -and Dahlia- into the floor.

Then there was silence. Backing off Dahlia’s body, Nadia stumbled woozily. She closed her eyes, letting out her breath. But when a familiar [i]chk-chk[/i] reached her ears, they shot open in time to see the fire shot before it exploded against her, flinging her away in a burst of steam. “Gyaaaah!” When she hit the ground, she looked up to see Dahlia rising from where she’d fallen, slowly, jerkily. Unnaturally. “What!? How!?”

“Hee hee, poor widdle kitty cat,” the assassin cooed, smirking behind her veil. “Did you really think you got rid of me? You’ll never be over me, as long as you live.” She lifted up her gun arm, somehow reattached and in mint condition, then loaded it with Another Round. “And since you can’t die, I guess that’ll be…forever!”[/hider]