[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 3,194 (+4)
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 14 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (195/140)  (+1 bonus pending)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 14 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (78/140)  (+1 bonus pending)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 13 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (75/130)  (+1 bonus pending)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](94/90)  (+1 bonus pending)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Sandswept Sky- Garudo Town
[hider=warp locations]
[s]
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth
Accessible locations:
Peach’s castle
Limsa Lominscuttle Town
Lumbridge
Twilight Town
Kosm’s Beach
[/s]
[/hider]
[/center]

With their mission completed, and their defensive mirror acquired, the troop ended up at something of a loss as to what to do with the rest of their time in town. A brief debate initiated, only to come to an almost immediate end when Bowser decided the answer was his favorite fallback: food.

Thus they made their way back to the market where they’d been trying to find mirrors, which caused a brief moment of exasperation from the merchants they’d previously harangued, and then sighs of relief when they saw the reflective tower shield now strapped to Bowser’s arm. Upon arriving, the King raised his snout to the wind, audibly sniffing loudly, and then declaring [color=FD0000]”This way!”[/color] before following his nose to what he sought.

At the end of the scent trail they found a garudo women named [url=https://i.imgur.com/hccdLGu.jpeg]Estan[/url] sitting before a collection of meats, some of which she was right in the midst of cooking for one of her customers, which had, quite obviously, been what had drawn the king’s attention.

The sight of a giant turtle salivating between his pointy teeth might have been a bit intimidating, and it certainly was to the customer, who made great haste in finishing her purchase, leaving Estan staring down the incoming Bowser without flinching.

Kamek then coughed, slipped ahead of his king and said to the shopkeep [color=DeepSkyBlue]”My apologies for his majesty, he gets like this when he’s hungry sometimes”[/color]

“Ah, not a problem. I once traveled all over, searching for the best meats ever, so I have seen plenty of people in all shapes and sizes, all of whom like some good meat” she replied, though the vegetarian koopa made a shrug of polite disagreement with her final point.

Bowser meanwhile declared [color=FD0000]”No one more than me!”[/color] as he too arrived, before telling her to [color=FD0000]”now show we what you’ve got”[/color]

“All sorts of stake, but for royalty? For you I’ve got a little supply of Gormet Steak, freshly cut from Great-Horned Rhinoceros hunted just to the east of here” she replied with mercantile guile, before reaching over, and unwrapping some paper covering just the most picturesque slab of [url=https://i.imgur.com/HWdC5hL.png]meat on bone[/url] you ever did see. That certainly got Bowser’s mouth watering, prompting a smile from the shopkeep

“You like it, yes? Then I can cook you up 4 cutts, right here right now. Perfectly seared and spiced to perfection”

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”3 only, I’ll pass-”[/color] Kamek said, only for Bowser to predictably adjusted the number it back up to [color=FD0000]”4. I’ll take his”[/color]

Kameks sighed, and then asked [color=DeepSkyBlue]”how much ”[/color] to which she smoothly replied “600 total” bumping up her usual price on the spot, and just as she predicted Bowser quickly agreed [color=FD0000]”Deal!”[/color]

Soon enough, the smell of high quality and even higher price meat filled the air, and then a bit after that the 3 royals of the troop where chowing down on the big hunks of flesh, while Kamek chowed down on a much more affordable [url=https://i.imgur.com/7J7uW6J.png]roasted voltfruit[/url], enjoying its intriguing mix of sweet and sour.

The question then was what to do next, and upon asking around about entertainment in town, they got directed round the back of it, where they caught sight of a familiar set of outcrops and an even more familiar [url=https://i.imgur.com/BZXty58.jpeg]signpost[/url].

[url=https://i.imgur.com/XHSmBho.png]Kalimari desert[/url] wasn’t all the same however. For one, there were the walls of garudo town to its east, which sported a drawbridge of all things to let spectators up onto the central rock plateau. For two there were no karts to be seen, and instead they caught sight of the Garudo [url=https://i.imgur.com/oWGRHrc.jpeg]sand seal racing[/url] around the former go kart track.

For three, there was no sight of the train running along its track. Whether that was because of safety reasons, resource efficiency reasons, or simply a lack of knowledge as to how to run it, its absence was a disappointment to jr, why bemoaned that [color=SpringGreen]”aww, but that was the only really good part of this one”[/color], rather spoiled as he was by the eccentricities of the later developed tracks.

He came to regret those words.

Fast forwards through the rigmarole of getting the prince into a race (because obviously he wasn’t not going to join in with this) including bench pressing Rika to prove he could handle himself, trying and failing to get his ocean going seal-pokemon Dazzle to pull him through the sand, then resorting to having to use one of the regular sand seals like everyone else and thenshowing a surprising degree of skill during practice thanks to his sporting and minion training experience.

After all that was done however, the prince got right into racing across the sands, blasting off the starting line, taking a fairly skilled turn round the first wide corner, and then effortlessly having his sand seal leap over the first spot the railway tracks crossed over the track (as it couldn't exactly burrow under it and also tow him along).

[color=SpringGreen]”Hey, that was a pretty good feature even without the train!”[/color] Jr called out in compliment after he landed on the sands on the other side of the tracks, having ramped off them with the shield he was surfing on, thinking the way it had been turned into a test of skill of the towing seal was pretty neat. Strangely, one of the other riders called out “don’t jinx us!” in response to that comment, right in time for a whistle like a banshee’s wail to utter from the tunnel that went through the mountain.

[color=FD0000]”Huh? What’s going on? What’s up with the train it sounds weird”[/color] Bowser asked, the Koopa having been knocked flying by the old locomotive more times than he’d care to admit, only for one of the women to reply “Just a train? No no no, it’s a deadly demon and its soooo cooool!” with a great deal of ecstatic glee.

The surrounding spectators had a bit of a mix of reactions to this deceleration, some seeming very much in agreement, a mix of excitement and open bloodlust in their eyes, while others were disapproving, having come for a good clean race and grumbling about how it was both a stupid and unnecessarily dangerous addition to the track, much preferring the times it didn’t decided to show its face.

Down below them the whistling came to a fever pitch as an armored [url=https://i.imgur.com/rZgRrgo.png]wartrain[/url] burst out of the tunnel, a mighty steam engine with gun turrets and bloodshot eyes attached to its armored form. It blazed across the first crossing, smashing into a racer and sending her body flying off into the desert, and unlike the mario karters, she was entirely unable to withstand that kind of collision. Despite being covered in gun turrets, and giving a delighted whistle upon track-killing one of the racers, it did not turn its many weapons upon the rest of them, instead seeming to act in function just like the mundane steam engine it was replacing, ‘merely’ with far deadlier consequences.

Both the elder koopas tensed at its appearance, but upon seeing it was following the ’rules’ of the old train, both were pretty sure the third koopa had the racing prowess to handle this.

[color=FD0000]”Show that choo choo chump who’s boss, kid!”[/color] Bowser called after his son in encouragement, while Kamek tutted that [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Someone should do something about this mess, it’s a bit much isn’t it?”[/color] not at all intending to do so himself. That kind of thing was a hero’s job after all. Focused as they were on the race, it took both of them much too long to notice that Rika had gone missing.

Below then, the train blasted across the second crossing, narrowly missing the middle of the pack of racers much to its chagrin, before slowing as it approached the spot where its track ran alongside the bottom right of the course. Its track’s shooter loop had let it do so ahead of those in first place despite its slowing, after which showed that it wasn’t quite going to stick to its predecessor’s rules as from its side multiple massive meters long chainsaws extended out over the track, forcing the racers to duck beneath them or be sliced in half.

The others had to do that anyway anyway. Jr was short enough to crouch just a little, much to his elder’s relief. That relief ended a few moments later after when they saw the figure of Rika leaping off of the plateau despite the cries of warning from (and more than one attempt to tackle her by) the other spectators, their cries joined by the two elder Koopas as she fired her grappling hook and latched onto the top of the train.

An eye atop the back of one of the turrets swiveled around to stare at her, first with surprise, then in rage as she charged it, and then not at all when she drove her chainsaw bayonet into it, prompting a whistling of pain from the train. Turrets on its back spun, trying to get a bead on the flee on its back, but the princess back flipped over their firing arcs, shots slowing around her as they failed to nail her, and then started unleashing blasts of electrical goop, rapidly coating its surface with damaging over time goop that also let her sail atop it.

In response to this vandalism carriage doors opened in one of the train’s carriages, and a pair of demons leapt atop its back, one armed with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/lFkVgb4.jpeg]scyth[/url], and the other with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/c2GGwsU.png]shotgun[/url], both racing to engage the ticketless rider.

Despite being alone on its back, she wasn’t without support, as down below jr formed iron spears using his metal tattooed arm, the projectile's floating in the air around him for a moment before turning and launching themselves in a broadside at the demons going for Rika. The train one again whistled in outrage at this second interference, accelerating after Jr and then tipping to the side, one set wheels leaving the tracks as it tilted its chainsaw down such that the tips scythed into the ground, creating an incoming angled wall of death. It claimed the life of another racer, but jr used a barrage of his own flukefey strikers hitting him to give him the sideways momentum needed to still duck under the blades where they came out of the train, where the space was still wide enough to survive.

Up top, Rika parried a demonic scythe swing with her chainsaw bayonet, traded double barreled cannon fire with the other demon, and then called out [color=Aqua]”what took you so long!”[/color] as Bowser came leaping in to join the fray. She wasn’t the only one to notice him however, as the train unleashed cannonfire upon the incoming king, only for it to slam into the reflective sheen of the mirror of lost battles as the king used it to block the shots.

The smoke from the blasts cleared a moment later, revealing the intact form of the king still falling towards them, the cracked exterior of the mirror, damaged but not broken, and, emerging from its reflections, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/RAbtZl5.png]one eye’d witch[/url]. This illusionary witch leapt off the surface of the mirror as soon as she had formed, her twice as large as her wiring chainsaw sword primed to brutality exorcize the demon her true self had once bound into this train’s body in the first place.

With a sort of primal and wholly instinctive fear only someone as badass as Bayonetta could have instill, the train swerved, phantom tracks forming beneath its wheels as it rammed its way out of the confines of the mundane train track and blazed up into the sky, taking Rika with it. This swerve let it avoid Bowser, who impotently slammed down into the now empty tracks a moment later, however the copy of the train’s binder had no such issue, slamming it's massive blade into the plateau’s walls and using that to redirect it's momentum and just barely land on the back of the train.

Both demons immediately turned on the reflection, only for it to dodge out of the way of the scything blade, and for the stray shotgun pellet that hit it to simply pass straight through the illusion. It then slammed it's massive sword into the scythe wielding demon, causing it to stumble backwards and cry out in pain, despite both the impact and injury it inflicted being false, and the foe having been fooled into reacting as if it had been hit by a true attack.

Rika’s however were entirely real, the princess summoning her spear and impaling the hammered demon with a one handed strike, then driving a vault breaker into it, knocking it off both the spear and the train itself.

Fortunately for it, the demon could fly. Unfortunately for it, so could Kamek, who nailed it with a close range cosmic spray just after it halted its fall. The slow moving mage should have been a prime target for the train’s guns after drawing attention to himself, but the it was much too busy freaking out as Rika and the train demon’s binder dispatched its other minion together (with Rika, again, doing all the damage while the doppelganger took all the attention). In response it tried corkscrewing its tracks like rollercoasters, trying to tip both of them off with the resulting barrel roll, and then, when they started running around it in the opposite direction to its spin, flailing its chainsaws as obstructions, only for both women to duck, dive, and leap to avoid both sets and ending up right back on top of it.

Left with no other ideas, it then instead hard braked, launching both of them forwards off of it in the process. Rika responded by tapping her featherfall rune, launching herself up into the air and out of the way just in time for the train to let loose with a forwards facing cannon barrage that unleashed all of its ammo into the reflection of its binder. No amount of dodging or ¾ chances to ignore damage would get it out of all that fire power, as in the end a single insignificant fragment of shrapnel ended up being the thing ending the reflection’s existence.

Upon seeing her gone, the train demon revealed its [url=https://i.imgur.com/9OqS5r0.jpeg]hideoues face[/url] and began to [url=https://i.imgur.com/ZesbYDx.png]laugh a[/url] the reflection’s demise, only for it stationary form to get nailed by a beam of concentrated sunlight blasting up from Bowser, the desert sun charged flash canon blast lancing out of his maw. Joining that shot was a blinding flash from the equally solar empowered Peeka, the photosynthesizing paradox pokemon blazing through the sky at the command of its trainer down below. Last but not least from the ranged firepower, Kamek hammer it in the face with a conjured magical fist.

Rika herself could not be ignored either, but rather than shoot at it the princess came buzzing right back into melee on the back of her Vespikan Ichor Queen. The giant wasp woman drove a mighty cleaver strike into the side of the train, at which point the princess leapt off its shoulders and right back onto the back of their foe. In response it craned its long neck up and around, trying to either bite her or stab her with its bladed chin, only for the princess to bullet jump away while unleashing her firepower into its face. Bullets, disruption bolts, electro swarms and splatter blasts struck it, the latter procking All Out Assault as she did so, turning her grizco blasts into a rapid fire shotgun, which in turn charged her Fan of Knives, letting her also shotgun it with a set of seven bleed causing blades into its face.

It screamed, fleeing her and hiding back in the metal of its body, but there was no escape from all the poison, bleed, and burning DoT effects her bombardment had caused. Nor did it protect it from a Rot's Exultation empowered Rika smashing it with her fists 3 times, denting blows weakening that armor further than her passive armor penetration that had been enabled by the 3 ongoing DoTs already was.

It raged, swerved and spun, trying to throw her off as it attempted to flee, and while doing so didn’t notice that she was somehow getting heavier and heavier until it was too late.

As the spectators watched from afar and Bowser and Jr raced after her, Kamek channeled his magic. In response Rika grew and grew in size atop the train till she was riding it more like a motorbike than a mass transit vehicle. Rating a palm on the rear of its engine for stability, she raised the other gauntlet up and then vault breaker she smashed it right down, sending the train careening into the desert while she herself floated down with her feather fall rune.

She touched down next to the demon engine who was now buried face first in the sand, gripped it but the rear, and then hauled it free, only to continue to haul it over her head, tip backwards and then slamming the already beaten train into a nearby rock face, suplexing it into oblivion.

Having lost the battle of ship vs train, the loser disengaged in the hands of the winner as she got to her feet, briefly looming over the desert while doing so. Then a moment later a mana spent Kamek slumped to the ground, exhausted by the distance involved in the spell cast (and turning into a cat demon while doing so), causing the princess to start shrinking back down, leaving on her own out there in the desert. She returned soon enough however, riding with Jr on the board towed by his borrowed sand seal, to the sound of cheers and sight of a few cold stares.

Opinions about the death of the controversial lethal aspect of the race tracks were a bit mixed. Naturally your daredevils and more bloodthirsty spectators were rather a bit displeased with its demolition, some of the previously indifferent to the train crowd were just upset with outsider meddling, while those who had been disapproving of the whole bloodsport thing from the beginning were happy to see it gone.

Ultimately however, the seer spectacle of what had just gone down forestalled what was going to be an inevitable ongoing argument for goodness who knows how long, controversy drowned by the cheers Rika got when she got hoisted up into first a relieved hug and then an overhead lift by Bowser to the sound of chants of ‘train slayer!” ‘train slayer!” ‘train slayer!” 

Attempts at quiet chiding words from Kamek to Rika, and also from the head of the guard to the troop on behalf of the town’s ruler, where both also smothered by the resulting celebration that exalted Rika’s absurd daring and the sheer skill she’d displayed. At some point during this Rika ended up crushing the spirit of the train for an item. As if also rewarding her for her casual daredevilry (she’d just been trying to help her brother) it generously granted her two items for the price of one.

[hider=Item Obtained][b][url=https://i.imgur.com/IKOoFGO.png]Dead End Express[/url][/b]
A pair of huge, heavy mechanized clubs forged from the remains of Wartrain Gouon, six feet long and a thousand pounds apiece. Each miniature locomotive boasts eleven grinding sawblade wheels that spin at high speed. Though nigh-impossible to wield, they boast terrifying destructive power, and can even be straddled or otherwise ridden and used as a vehicle[/hider]

Shame they were just, stupidly big. Even Bowser could only use one of the blades, and that was if he was forgoing his new shield and doing so with both hands. Fortunately, Kamek was able to shrink them, though that did somewhat lose the appeal of the ridiculous weapons, especially once they worked out they could be used as motorbikes.

The sight of, and then trying out of, that last feature was just the icing on the cake of the party, Jr getting his own little moment in the limelight while wheelying and donutting the giant bladed motor vehicle around the racetrack, artfully bunnyhopping over the rails while doing so.