[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/G2xPk9Gk/Jiggy-2.png[/img]

feat. [@Archmage MC]

[color=0072bc][h3]Blazermate[/h3][/color]

[b]Level:[/b] [color=fed428]2 (15 -> 18/20)[/color] | [color=0072bc]Lvl 5 0 ->3/50[/color] 
[b]Location:[/b] Dead Zone - Redgraccoon City
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2458 (+3 EXP)

[color=0072bc]Learned Crafting/Engineering[/color]

[i](B-K level up pending…)[/i]
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While the duo idly waited for the others to gather, they noticed--as it would be difficult not to--the builder bot setting up contraptions in the bed of their kart. The question of what the first one was answered itself with the help of a lesser Rabbid popping out of it… repeatedly, whereas the second was largely self-explanatory, obviously being an automated gun of some kind. The latter would no doubt come in handy to save them some of the work having to fight off whatever they run into while they drive, even if it did impede their frontal view somewhat. As she looked to lay down her third machine, she decided to strike up conversation with them for the first time since encountering one another, having not been formally introduced up to that point.

[color=0aaaff]“Nice to meet you, Blazermate,”[/color] Banjo offered, returning her greeting. [color=0aaaff]“I guess we’re doing okay. Thanks for helping us out back there, by the way.”[/color] Banjo had mostly forgotten about the events at the castle and their indirect involvement in them, and as Blazer had observed, they haven’t taken much of a hit since then. Thus, they’ve not needed her services and were otherwise unaware of what they were. To accompany her question to them about their reasons for diverging, she casually talked of “parts” and “upgrades” being her own.

[color=f60000]“Why not do that here, then?”[/color] Kazooie suggested bluntly, referring to the fact that she was a machine about to leave a machine shop in search of practical self-improvement. [color=f60000]“Wouldn’t that make more sense for you?”[/color]

[color=0072bc]“Oh hello Banjo.”[/color] Blazermate said at Banjo’s friendly greeting as she found a spot for her dispenser. As it built, she replied to Kazooie. [color=0072bc]“I’m a Medabot. Parts for me are a bit different than normal robots. For starters, nothing they had here was compatible with my medal, so it wouldn’t work.”[/color] Blazermate pointed to Din, who was heading off to the Land of Adventure  [color=0072bc]“These spirits are compatible though! Heck, they’re even better than Medabot parts, as they let me fill slots that aren’t my arms, feet, or head. Not that I’d ever wanna give up such a cute face.”[/color] She said, striking a cute pose, which admittedly, was lessened because of her engineering overalls.

Kazooie did get Blazermate thinking, with the engineer soul inside her and her knowledge of being a medabot, why couldn’t she make her own upgrades? Even if they were only weapons she could hold, she had everything at her disposal in the form of scrap metal and a dispenser to craft things. And she hadn’t really given it a try, so she decided she would see what she could do when the dispenser was fully upgraded.

[color=0072bc]“How about you two? Are you looking forward to all the things spirits can do for you?”[/color] Blazermate said, her dispenser fully erected. All that was left for her to do now was upgrade it all the way, so she started hammering away at it with her fist, trying to keep the noise down so she could hear what everyone was saying.

[color=0aaaff]“Y’know, I haven’t thought about it much, really,”[/color] Banjo replied. [color=0aaaff]“This whole ‘spirits’ thing is kinda new to us. We didn’t even know about it until today.”[/color] Although they’ve been witness to plentiful demonstration of spiritual fusion within a matter of hours, they had yet to encounter any spirits that they could call dibs on that they would be okay with using, let alone one that would be suitable for them. That being said, it was hard to deny the apparent utility and appeal of them. Kazooie--envious of Din--would certainly agree.

[color=f60000]“Hmm… Come to think of it, we too could use some ‘upgrades’ of our own,”[/color] Kazooie admitted. [color=f60000]“Plus, it’d be nice to learn some new moves on top of our old ones… after we learn those again.”[/color] A tinge of frustration from her came out at the last part. Having to trek their way through a new, more perilous world with a fraction (or less) of their overall moveset carried over was certainly less than ideal, and they weren’t likely to run into someone who could ‘teach’ new techniques to them.

[color=0aaaff]“As long we don’t have to steal them,”[/color] Banjo conceded. [color=0aaaff]“I don’t wanna assimilate anyone who isn’t okay with it.”[/color] He was unsure how to work around the moral complications of the act, but understood the need to at the very least keep an open enough mind to entertain the idea, in recognition of their limitations. Time wouldn’t allow him to dwell on it before the new party were given their orders from the two leading them onward, setting off posthaste. The pair could put off contemplating the moral/philosophical implications of ‘spirit upgrades’ until such time as it became relevant or necessary for them to do so.

It didn’t take long for them to receive their first ominous sign that they were on the right track. A sheet of murky, unnatural cloud cover obscured the sun and sky the closer to the dead city they got, blanketing it under a false cover of night. Some ways down the road, after crossing over into the city limits, pre-mission discussion briefly resumed.

[color=0aaaff]“So what is that you’re building, anyway?”[/color] Banjo inquired of the medabot, who had spent the entire drive working away diligently on her contraptions.

Blazermate listened to the pair talk as they drove, hammering away at her dispenser. The pair seemed to be at odds about what they wanted out of the spirits. Kazooie was right alongside Blazermate at getting upgrades, Banjo however was apprehensive. Seeing this, Blazermate said. [color=0072bc]“I’m glad I didn’t lose too many Medabot upgrades coming here. Only thing I’m missing right now is my heavy armored jet form. And to be honest, I rarely used that anyway. Don’t worry too much about the spirits Banjo. You only collect them from defeated enemies.”[/color]

Finishing upgrading her dispenser, Blazermate continued. [color=0072bc] “As for this, it’s a dispenser. It dispenses ammo and you can use it to craft stuff. It also heals anyone next to it. And as you guessed, the gun shoots things, and the teleporter… teleports people. Speaking of shooting people… Do you guys hear something up ahead?”[/color] 

Ahead, zombies were outside the entrance to Redgraccoon City. As the cars whizzed past them, Blazermate’s Sentry beeped thrice in quick succession, before locking onto whatever zombie was near the automated gun and mowed it down with a barrage of bullets and rockets. Seeing as how these were standard zombies, the sentry made quick work of each one it could as the trolley drove by. [color=0072bc]“Haha, Man this thing is showing its worth, huh?”[/color] Blazermate said as she saw the devastation her automated gun did to the hordes of zombies. Due to the high volume of fire, Blazermate had to hit her sentry from time to time to reload its ammo, having the sentry run out of ammo in the middle of the zombie hordes would be a really bad thing.

All the while, Banjo tried to stay behind the van as it bulldozed its way through the clusters of lesser undead that got in it its way to avoid inadvertently using any of them as a speed bump himself, which, even without the distractions, proved a challenge on its own on account of the woman’s reckless driving (to put it mildly). The Trolley rocked on its wheels with every turn in its driver’s desperate attempt to keep up without rolling over. Luckily, Blazer’s sentry took some of the pressure off by making meat of those that even so much as looked their way--and then some. It couldn’t look everywhere at once, however, so there were a few stragglers that managed to wander uncomfortably close to Banjo. In the case that any made it onto the kart or within arm’s reach, Kazooie would pop out and jab at them with her beak to knock them off, if not to pieces.

It wasn’t long before they started spotting fiercer-looking creatures, the first couple of which the man riding shotgun in the van made effortless work of with astonishing ease and efficiency (with a hint of style). The party shortly arrived at a four-way intersection replete with abandoned vehicles and the shambolic remains of an attempted roadblock where more zombies and demons alike awaited them in greater numbers. They all rolled to a stop in the middle of everything, not terribly far behind the black quartet on their trail, and the white-haired man stepped out of the van, brought out a pristine, impressive looking greatsword, and called dibs on the demons that were previously minding their own business. The more trigger happy of their pack didn’t like that idea, so they opened fire indiscriminately into the crowd in spite of the demon hunter’s order. Regardless, everyone got to work.

Blazermate’s Sentry, being in a target rich environment, never stopped firing while Banjo navigated the trolley through the town as they followed the van. Even when they stopped at the crossroads, seeing as it still had targets in its range, it bombarded whatever was closest to it with its rapid fire miniguns and its quad rocket launcher which kept the group relatively safe within the sentry’s range. [color=0072bc]“I almost feel bad for the zombies… almost.”[/color] Blazermate said as she kept the sentry gun stocked up, but mostly just watched the carnage it caused alongside watching her ‘allies’ in the van doing what they were doing. Why that man with the sword wanted to get into melee range of slow moving zombies that looked frankly disgusting was beyond her. Leaning over to Kazooie, Blazermate said. [color=0072bc]”500 zenny says he comes out a disgusting mess. Dunno why anyone would get close to these things.”[/color]

[color=f60000]”Then you probably don’t want to look over here,”[/color] Kazooie quipped at Blazermate’s protest to an up close approach, knowing full well that her and Banjo would have to do exactly that. Being all but dry on ammo to join the firing squad or supply to do anything else, the duo were left to take care of the horde that crept up on the team from their flanks. Banjo leapt from the seat of the Trolley, and Kazooie opened with her Rat-a-tat Rap before Banjo’s feet hit the ground to knock off the first couple of zombies. Then, she tucked her wings around him as he dove forward into a rolling attack to bowl through the next few in a crooked line. He fluidly rose to his feet, already grabbing for the straps of his backpack while slipping it off to swing it around him in a whole spin and a half as a clumsy bludgeoning weapon--with Kazooie’s marginal weight addition increasing the force--to repel or dispatch the surrounding undead that were closing in on them. In the same motion, he threw his pack back on and kept going, front kicking one zombie away only for another to catch him by surprise when it grappled at him. He caught it just in time to enter it and himself in a clinch, but even for a burly specimen like Banjo, this simple fiend had a surprising amount of might behind it for its size and condition; perhaps more than most normal people could handle.

Even though Banjo likely boasted more than enough strength to force off his attacker on his own, Kazooie decided to chime in with two pecks to the creature’s face, granting her partner a clear opening to drive his shoulder into its abdomen (what was left of it) and force it into his grasp. He then proceeded to attempt using the living carcass as a battering ram as he continued charging forward through as many of the still standing horde as he could before having to discard his unwilling weapon. At that point, he would spin, grabbing the shouldered corpse by the ankles and slinging it at a row of its own to try and take them out. Regardless of the quality of his good work, the ursine wasn’t spared a second to dust his hands off before he felt himself suddenly being jerked back by a constricting tether tightening around his neck. He stumbled into a forced turnaround to get a look at its source--a different, special type of zombie--whilst instinctively grasping at the loops of tongue that strangled him and pulling away to stop himself being drawn in, but to no avail. His feet slowly slid along the asphalt despite his resistance until he stopped at a concrete barrier that he could plant one foot on, which unfortunately served to worsen the constriction.

Sensing that her partner was in trouble, Kazooie emerged and began jabbing at the monster’s tongue to force it to let go, or at the very least loosen its grip. In either case, Banjo would start grabbing extra lengths and wrapping them by segments at a time around his arms, shoulders, and torso to try pulling it to him until he had enough leverage to yank the Smoker off its feet. If he succeeded, he would let it fly past him to unravel himself while Kazooie grabbed a hold of the end of its tongue to try sending it into elastic rebound. He would then punch it away repeatedly with every return (possibly into other zombies), like a balloon tied to a rubber band, before smacking it down into the concrete with an overhead swing on the final hit and finishing it off with a Breegull Bash. Smoke would begin rapidly rising from the creature's remains, swelling into a vile green haze that the duo moved to find themselves out of as quickly as possible. Banjo stepped from the gaseous fog, coughing, with a fading spirit in his hand that him and Kazooie eyed curiously for a second before closing his fist around it to see if he couldn’t crush it into something useful… hopefully.

Blazermate could only roll her eyes at seeing the bear and bird combo running off into the frey. [color=0072bc]”Of course. Welp, I’ll wait til my sentry cleans up more zombies before I do anything.”[/color] When the pair got pulled, She did notice that fact and went on a bit more of a defensive stance. She would need some way to make her sentry shoot the tongue of whatever thing pulled the pair. Thankfully a few moments later the pair emerged from where they were pulled. As they got in range of Blazermate’s healing beam, she put it on them, putting herself between her sentry and dispenser and using them both as cover as her sentry kept firing. They were mildly injured, but something told her things were going to get a bit tougher with all the noise that was being made.