[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/7VmE2Nf.png[/img] [b]& [/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/uO5gQ8R.png[/img] Location: 1-1, Central Road [/center] Speaking with: [@thedman]Michael [@LemonZest1337] Rachet [@ProPro] The courier [@Archmage MC] Blazermate As he slowly wandered on down towards peach’s castle Bowser was secretly pleased at the number of people who had joined his cause. He was less pleased with the amount they poked and prodded him with questions and talk, though he supposed it did pass the time as they traveled. First up was the helpful medbot Blazermate who commented [color=0076a3]"You don't have to be that slow Bowser, I'm healing the little guy for ya."[/color] “I am not slow!” The king barked in response to this as if he got this complaint a lot, before he quickly added “I’m just being careful. But if you think you can keep that up we’ll pick up the pace” and pick up the pace he did, ever so lightly, shifting from a casually slow stomping to a somewhat faster, and rather unpleasant in the king's opinion, march. The king grimaced with envy up at Geno as he flew by, wishing he had one of his airships to transport them. Or his flying clown car. Or a go-cart. Or that he could fly still like he had when he had been trying to take over the galaxy. Any of those would have been better than this ground pounding. “Also if keeping pace with me is tricky then feel free to hitch a ride” he added gruffly to the cute helpful robot, partially because it would put kirby’s transport hat at a less precarious angle while still keeping him in healer range, partially because further tying himself to their only healer would be good for keeping the mooks in line. The next was the cowboy who had shown himself to be of a mercenary disposition asking for payment in return for service. The king had mixed opinions about this because while it would be good to have someone who wasn't a goody two shoes under him heros generally seemed to work for free. “You get to work for the greatest badguy the worlds ever known” he began by boasting, before adding “also my army has excellent perks. We got steady pay, health insurance, dental and... Well we would have those but I’m kinda not sure where my kingdom is at the moment… hmmm” the king scratched his head as he pondered for a few moments, before reaching down to his jacket and, with a single claw, snipped off one of the golden buttons from his waistcoat. Then he held it up in front of his mouth and carefully heated the tennis ball sized button with his fiery breath till it melted down into a puddle. This puddle the king allowed to cool till it hardened into a disk, creating a dinner plate sized crude replica of one the mushroom kingdom’s signature gold coin which he then coin flipped over to the Courier. “Humans like gold right? Stick with me and I can assure you, here be plenty more where that came from” mostly because gold coins where dim a dozen in the mushroom kingdom, and he was sure he could get some at peach's castle either by robbing the place or coercing the toads to hand over whatever wealth the princess kept in her palace. “Plus Blazermate can provide he healthcare part. Right Blazermate?” Michael was basically the only person who did not get on the kings nerves in any way as he seemed to have imiediatly fallen into line as a member of his army. Or that was the kings impression anyway. “Welcome to my army Michael” he responded offhandedly to the man’s introduction as he continued to deal with the trials of leadership. Then there was Linkle. Bowser did not understand how she had been mistaken for link by the redhead. The King was not excatly good at distinguishing between human faces, so mainly he went off of outfits to identify them instead, and linkle lacked the signature silly green had that the king had used to tell the legendary hero apart from all the other sword wielding pretty boys that had been at the battle with Galeem. While she did not cause trouble for the king personally she did direct a rodent looking fellow to him, someone who seems to be quite the heavy sleepe, as he had managed to miss bowser's speech. The king gave a rude exasperated sigh at their perfectly reasonable questioning and gave a rapid fire summary of their situation “The winged rainbow ball in the sky stole lots of bits of or worlds and the people in em to make this place. I’m King Bowser, your now in my army, we’re going to defeat the ball and put everything back to normal. Your robot friends probably possessed and out here somewhere” he finished just as they arrived at the crossroads “bit like those guys” the king added, referring to the many low level enemies scattered across the area, all of them sporting the same menacing purple aesthetic. Bowser then took a little time to take in their new location. The first most noticeable thing was, of course, the only person not controlled by Galeem that they had met so far, the mysterious cloaked figure currently napping in a hammock dangerously close to all the minions crawling around in the the three paths beyond. Bowser took note of the fact that there would be free people on their journey but was not really interested in actually dealing with the person. Partially because he was quite certain Hero’s would see too it, as it seemed to be a hero's solemn duty to talk to literally everyone they came across during an adventure, but mainly because he spotted some familiar creatures in familiar surroundings down the middle lane. The various koopas and goombas patrolling the road were, of course, parts of Bowser’s regular army and the king was very displeased to see them serving someone who had kicked his butt. Again. This kind of thing happened way too often for the king’s liking but at least he was used to it by now. Ignoring the other two paths, he’d likely get stuck in the woods and the canyon looked like a pain anyway, the king stomped his way through the brief enemy free beginning part of the obstacle course, literally in some cases as he swatted floating bricks aside with his free hand while crushed grass underfoot, as he headed straight for the first group of minions patrolling the area. Once adequately in range the king started shouted at them, a course of action that was probably coming to be expected at this point by the rest of the team. “Oi! Minions! Your King is here! So shake off that stupid bauble's control before I come over there beat it out of you!” The king then roared at them for good measure before proceeded to torch a nearby thicket of long grass with his flame breath for emphasis. This inadvertently caused a bunch of rat and bug Pokemon to scatter out from their former hiding place to avoid incineration, which left Bowser, and the unconscious Kirby, facing down a bunch of alerted monsters a little way down the central path. There was perhaps some kind of comic irony or poetic significance about Bowser starting out his journey to save the world much the same way Mario would, on a grassy platforming filled road facing down koopas and goombas, but if there was any deeper meaning to be had it was lost on Bowser. Instead the King was simply grinning from ear to ear, eager to get going because right now, after suffering the embarrassing defeat at the hands of Galeem, he was really looking forwards to a good old fashioned rampage. Wordcount 1, 280