[center][color=ed1c24][h3]Din[/h3][/color][b]Level 2[/b] - (3/20) EXP [h3]Ratchet[/h3][b]Level 2[/b] - (2/20) EXP [h3]Roadhog[/h3][b]Level 1[/b] - (8/10) EXP [b]Location:[/b] 1-1, Ancient Gardens [b]Word Count:[/b] 2,507 Collab with: [@LemonZest1337] and [@Star Lord][/center] As Kirby came too, Din would look down at the hat and smile, [color=ed1c24]"Hey little guy, feeling better?"[/color] However, the force of a nearby explosion would knock Din back and send the hat flying, only to be snagged by a large man with white hair, a pig-shaped mask, and a menacing hook, accompanied by one of the rabbit creatures. The pair of miscreants had kidnapped Kirby from across a small ravine. [color=ed1c24]"No! Kirby!"[/color] Din cried out in dismay. Through some spiritual connection, Din knew that Kirby was a source of good in this chaotic world and was loathe to let the puffball out of her sight. Letting Kirby go would also be disappointing everyone else in the party, especially Bowser, who had entrusted Kirby into her care. [color=ed1c24]"Ratchet! We need to get Kirby back. Do you think you can jump the gap?"[/color] Din asked, taking a few steps back in preparation for taking the leap across the cliff herself. Ratchet tilted his head as the little pink puffball awoke, he didn't know who they were but they were obviously hurt. He couldn't help but find it's soft smile adorable as he smiled back. But the moment didn't last long as an explosion went of and knocked Ratchet to the floor he grunted and quickly got to his feet just in time to see a massive hook yank the poor helpless puff off into the distance the metal claw ripping it's way through the grass as it reeled in it's victim. At least they could see the enemies now and the contrast between the two was almost comical, one being a tiny white rabbit with some gear on trying to look tough and the other a towering man who looked imposing even with his lack of armor. Ratchet looked looked over at Din as she cried out after Kirby? So that's what the little thing was called, honestly the cute name made sense. Din then asked if Ratchet could make the jump over the ravine, and he wasn't really sure if he could especially considering Clank wasn't on his back to help him out. "Uhh. Probably, but what about you?" He asked quickly turning his attention back to the Massive masked man and the rabbid, oh crap it was getting ready to throw another grenade! Quickly Ratchet took aim and started blasting in the rabbid's direction hoping to make it dive for cover. Ratchet slightly jerked his head back signaling Din to fall back a little "Quick find some cover! I'll jump the gap in a bit just got to take care of that grenadier first!" [color=maroon][i]Retrieve the pink creature. Destroy anyone that stands in your way.[/i][/color] Roadhog heard the whisper in his mind as he shoved it into the white top hat and placed it on his head. Then, he heard the other strange looking creature calling out for assistance. And when it was planning on running to cover, Roadhog shoved the creature aside to protect it from the threat. He felt a few arrows hitting his chubby stomach and groaned. Almost immediately after being shot, Roadhog pulled out one of the arrows and crushed it like a twig. Then, he placed his hook back into its correct spot and pulled out a gas container and started to inhale the chemical mixture known as hogdrogen. It was deemed illegal years ago, but one of the few mixtures known counteract the effects of radiation exposure. When it was empty, Roadhog just crushed the container and threw it away. He pulled out the remaining arrows without pain in seconds. The grenadier came out of cover and looked at the masked man for guidance. Roadhog pointed at the woman with the long ears and the grenadier started to fire off grenades at her. Meanwhile, he was focused on the small animal and grabbed his homemade scrap gun. He shoved some scrap into it, aimed at the creature, and pulled the trigger. Before Din could make the leap, Ratchet warned her to find cover. it was then that the kidnappers began attacking in earnest, forcing Din to duck behind cover to avoid the explosion of a grenade, and to momentarily give up her attempt to get across the canyon to retrieve Kirby. Looking around, Din was dismayed that most obstacles were only waist-high, otherwise she could at least dance and provide Ratchet with some backup. Of course, hiding behind Ratchet wasn't an option either, given how much smaller the Lombax was compared to her. Din occasionally peaked over the waist-high wall at Roadhog and the grenade-wielding Rabbid to look for an opening. From the looks of it, the large man's weapon was mechanical in nature, rather than magical. As such, like a crossbow, it had to be refilled with ammunition eventually. Carefully, Din was able to observe that the pile of slag that Roadhog had fed into his weapon was visibly being consumed every time he fired it. Din was useless like this, and figured that the only way she could help is to get across and attempt to engage them with her Rod. Din kept peeking over the wall, looking and waiting for an opportunity, hopefully when the last bit of scrap was consumed by Roadhog's gun, before attempting to make another leap across the canyon. Ratchet watched the behemoth of a man just take the arrows to the arm like they were nothing, yeah this guy was going to be a problem if he was able to shrug off his shots like that. Ratchet wasn't given time to think as the man fired a nasty looking projectile mad of scrap at him Ratchet knew getting hit by that was going to hurt so he quickly jumped backwards and did a back-flip mid air to avoid the shot. After landing he'd ready his crossbow and charge forward just firing shots in the general direction of the two enemies as he made his way towards the gap getting ready to jump. But before he did he remembered it wasn't just him here, changing coarse he rolled to the side of an explosive that was hurled at Din and got behind cover with her. "I think you should take this." He said holding out the crossbow "If you give me some cover I can run up and snag that hat off the big guys head and we can get out of here." Ratchet covered his eyes for a moment as dust sprayed at him from a nearby explosion. Roadhog watched as the animal did a backflip and retreated to cover. He kept an eye on the rabbit, who was still shooting at the enemy, and resumed firing. Of course, he ran out of scrap rather quickly. Roadhog reached for more scrap to shove into his gun while the creature kept firing grenades. Din looked at Ratchet incredulously. She had no confidence in her ability to aim a crossbow, but as the smaller creature, he definitely had a better chance of stealing back the hat. "Th-then take this," Din offered Ratchet the inert Rod of Seasons; it could at least be used as a mace, and had a slightly longer reach than his wrench. At least if Ratchet threw his wrench again, he'd have another melee weapon at hand. As Ratchet made to jump during Roadhog's reload, Din would attempt to take a few potshots towards her enemies, trying to focus on the Rabbid, since Roadhog seemed able to shrug off the bolts that Ratchet had previously fired. Even if she didn't hit, she hoped she could at least provide enough of a distraction for Ratchet to make his move. Ratchet nodded to Din and took the Rod of Seasons and ran for the gap dodging and weaving pasts the many grenades the rabbid was unloading. Storing his wrench quick ratchet ran for the little fissure and used the rod as a pole to vault with sending himself high into the air, he knew that he was in a bit of a bad spot now as the masked man would no doubt take a shot at him mid air. Just so he didn't drop it Ratchet put the staff away as well, if he did get hit and dropped it there wouldn't be a way to recover it. Ratchet was about half way across the gap before he jumped of the air itself with a slight whipping sound and from the looks of it he was going to make it across the chasm. Roadhog saw that the animal was attempting to make across the gap and reached for his hook. He threw it in the hopes of catching it and dealing with it for good. Meanwhile, the other animal stopped firing at the woman because he needed to reload and tried to be quick about it. Din popped out from behind her hiding spot right when Ratchet took the leap, peppering crossbow bolts in the direction of Roadhog and the grenade-flinging Rabbid, hoping to distract them from attacking her small friend. Seeing that the Rabbid had stopped launching grenades momentarily, Din attempted to focus her shots on it, seeing that it looked like the weaker of the two. Din would continue until Linkle's crossbow emptied before diving back behind her rock, and finding a magazine of crossbow bolts magically appearing in her off-hand. [color=ed1c24][i]"How unusual,"[/i][/color] Din thought to herself as she reloaded the weapon. As Ratchet thought the brute was going to take advantage of him being in the air, but instead of using his scarp gun he hurled his massive hook at ratchet. Yeah that thing looked like it could do some damage! Quickly pulling out his wrench he went to smack the hook out of the air but instead got his wrench caught by the hook. "Oh no." He said plainly as he was pretty sure what came next was going to really sting. Roadhog managed to hook the animal's wrench before it could use it. He pulled on the hook's chains and sent the animal to the ground while the wrench flew towards him. Roadhog caught it and saw the rabbit dodging the arrows until one of them hit his grenade launcher, breaking it. The rabbit began to retreat in fear before Roadhog grabbed his arm. He knew that his weight was going to be a problem escaping and decided to give the hat to him. The rabbit grabbed the hat and begun running away from the scene while putting on the hat. Meanwhile, Roadhog walked towards the animal on the ground, grabbed its neck, and started to strangle it. Seeing Ratchet get hooked, and Roadhog passing the hat to the fleeing Rabbid, Din was momentarily torn with indecision. But she made up her mind quickly, and while the Rabbid was fleeing, and Roadhog was preoccupied strangling Ratchet, Din leapt across the canyon, running towards Roadhog and firing the crossbow at him repeatedly, shouting, [color=ed1c24]"Let go of my friend!"[/color] She remembered seeing him ingest something earlier to recover from injuries sustained when Ratchet had struck him with bolts, like the red potions that were so common in Hyrule, and knew that if he needed to heal, he would have to let go of Ratchet's neck. Din was loathe to let the Rabbid make off with Kirby, but it seemed they wanted the puffball alive, so Ratchet took priority. Besides, she was sure that if they could successfully take down Roadhog, chasing down the Rabbid with it's tiny legs shouldn't be too difficult. Optimistically speaking, maybe they'd sandwich it between themselves and Geno. Ratchet coughed as he struggled against Roadhog's massive hands, his legs flailing helplessly as he tried to pull the brutes hands from his throat. "Ghack-chccck!" Ratchet's eyes darted around as he frantically looked for a way to get himself out of the death trap that was the mans massive hands, spotting his wrench he wished he could reach it then he remembered the staff he was given. Though before acting he saw Din running to his rescue unloading a flurry of arrows into the goliath that was restraining him, if he could hold out a little longer the rain of arrows might make the man relent and open him up for a massive strike. And his mask looked like it would be a good place to hit, hopefully that would at the very least incapacitate this brute. While Roadhog was strangling the animal, he heard the woman shouting as several arrows were heading for him. Almost immediately, Roadhog's left arm was used to shield himself for the incoming arrows. He had to deal with her before she managed to kill him. Roadhog got up as he was getting out his chain hook and threw it directly at the woman in order to stop her. It hit her stomach and caused her to stop for a moment. Roadhog started to retreat his hook when he realized that he left the small animal unattended and dreaded to turn around. Regardless, he at least tried to prepare for a response by reaching for his gun. The hook hitting Din certainly knocked the air out of her. stunning her and causing her to double over. yet while her vision was realigning itself, she heard the soft clinking as the chain was being retracted. She wasn't sure if Ratchet was up yet, but she wanted to buy him some more time so she threw herself onto the hook, clamping the hook between her legs with the sharp part pointed away from her, while gripping the chain with her hands, essentially just adding her own weight onto the chain. She didn't know Roadhog's strength, but she doubted he could fling her as easily as he had flung Ratchet. Ratchet fell from the giants grip as they used their arm to block the arrows Din had sent at them, now was Ratchet's moment! Now standing behind Roadhog Ratchet pulled out Din's staff and started running at Roadhog from behind again using the staff as a pole to vault with, he aimed himself at the giants heat winding up for a forceful strike at the mans head. "Hey porky!" He shouted as he unleashed his strike upon the man. Before Roadhog could even react, the animal managed to hit his head hard enough with some kind of weapon. He tried to shoot at the creature, but he started to have trouble aiming. Then, he decided to attempt to get close towards him, but had trouble walking. And in his final attempt, he attempt to grab the container filled with hogdrogen to regain his strength; however, he finally collapsed onto the ground before he could inhale it. He had been defeated. As Roadhog was near unconsciousness, he heard the voice for the last time with a disappointing tone. [color=maroon][i]"Another failure. What a shame."[/i][/color] Then, he was unconscious; however, he was starting to remember the day that the world was consumed by a blinding light. Meanwhile, his container of hogdrogen was slowly changing back to its original color.