[center][img]https://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/b/b2/Koopa_Troop_artwork.png/658px-Koopa_Troop_artwork.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,309 (+3) 
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 6 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////// (20/60)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 5 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////// (11/50)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 5 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]/////////////////[/color]//////////////////////////////////(17/50)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Gneidxick ‘s Casino
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[color=SpringGreen]”Oh hay. Cool robot.”[/color] Jr greeted the Courier as he arrived with the newly built Gaige-Tron. While a part of him bemoaned how the cowboy had been useful during the night while jr had slept like a very sad rock, most of Jr was too interested in their new companion to let his sadness drag him down for the moment. He pushed himself down off of the stool he was sitting on and wandered on over, pausing just long enough to let Mimikyu hop onto his shoulder from off of the sprite littered table. 

He gave an impressed whistle as he examined the robot up close. As he did, he came to the thought that he and the Courier actually had a fair bit in common, what with their tinkering, minions leading and Pokemon training skills. It was, jr thought without much awareness or consideration of the other major, major differences the pair had between them, a shame they hadn’t interacted much before.

[color=SpringGreen]”Man you’ve stuffed so much gear in there”[/color] He noted with an impressed tone as a precursory glance revealed several weapons and mysterious contraptions bolted onto or into the machine. As he examined the robot Mimikyu hopped up onto the robot’s shoulders to have a look around. Then when the bot began to express her colorful personality the spirit eagerly joined in her wacky wavy inflatable tube man routine, waving its equally floppy limbs all about while sitting where Gaige-tron’s head should be.

[color=SpringGreen]”And you’re smart too. That’s so cool!”[/color] Jr said, rapidly switching his focus from the creator to the creation. Gaige-tron was something that had been lacking in the boys life recently, and that was chaotic fun. She was just the thing to jolt him out of his stupor, maybe for good.

[color=SpringGreen]”Hey Gaige-tron, so I’m Bowser Jr,”[/color] he quickly introduced himself [color=SpringGreen]”and I’ve still got this minigun arm from an ice cream truck mecha we beat up laying around somewhere. Way too heavy for my car but for you maybe it’d work for you?”[/color] he suggested, mind suddenly coming abuzz with ideas where he’d earlier been failing to think of any that would stick just moments ago [color=SpringGreen]”Oh oh, or maybe I could upgrade that weird pea gun you got with my magic ink! Juice em up with it and then when they hit stuff they go splat! Really goop up the works of who your hitting.”[/color]

Before Jr could bombard Gaige-tron with more ideas however, the argument over quest rewards came to a head.

[hr]

While the prince had been moping and then inspecting the newly arrived cool robot Bowser and Kamek had been confronting the Guild Master, who had become highly resistant to their continued success. While combing through his king’s dumping of sprites on the table Kamek had considered that this was about more than just trying to hold out on giving them the sizable reward for the quest, but those suspicions had not adequately prepared himself for the Hooded figure’s dramatic reaction. 

The Guild’s Master shifted suddenly from his standoffish and obstructive manner to a brief burning rage when presented with proof, only to snap back to being smooth as varnish moments later. There was little time to process him casually referring to them as “Seekers” and the implications of the existence of that name for their ilk or the fact that there were people watching and betting on their actions because just as soon as he had done dealing out dramatic reveals so the Guild master hit them with a more magical surprise. Darkness blossomed from the figure, which Kamek quickly guessed was the Dark Magic the Master of Masters had mentioned when asked about the type of cloaks the pair wore. Using this dark magic he transformed that same cloak into a coin that he flipped at the team before any could react. 

Bowser was, predictably, floored by these events. Or rather de-floored. When the coin hit the deck it blossomed out into a hole or portal in the floor, dropping the King and most of the party down into a deep pit. Kamek, who had been using his broom as a walking stick, was the only one who could avoid plummeting down on his own thanks to his grip on it. Left hanging by one hand from his floating broom he acted quickly, dropped the Brachydios spirit and grabbing a startled Jr by the leg before the boy could drop away from the hole and into the darkness below. 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Don’t worry young Master, I have you.”[/color] Kamek told to jr as the boy dangled upside down in his grasp.

This left Jr in the perfect position to watch Bowser plummet into the darkness, his eyes bugged out, his mouth agape and his arms flailing wildly as he did so. Mimikyu fell too, riding Gaige-tron down into the darkness, it’s arms clinging to its disguise to avoid the cloth outfit from being swept away by the wind-rush of the fall. In that moment hopelessness reared its head in his mind because he was in exactly the same situation as he had been last night. Without his car he was unarmed and relying on Kamek to protect him, which was, in Jr’s mind, utterly pathetic. Yet as the tendrils of hopelessness threatened to ensnare his heart once more his eyes caught sight of the Brachydios sprite floating slowly down into the darkness and, far below, a few burst of burning light. He recalled the conversation he had overheard Kamek and Bowser have last night, about starting to absorb sprites for power, and saw possible evidence that the pit had a bottom within which his father was fighting, and came to a decision.

[color=SpringGreen]”Let. Me. GO!”[/color] jr yelled as he lashed out with a  foot three times in quick succession, kicking his savior’s hand. Kamek yelped in pain and surprise as he dropped his young master, who plummeted down after the rest of the party. As he fell past the slowly drifting Brachydios sprite he grabbed it and then slammed it into his chest, the transformation taking hold as he continued to fall downwards. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”JR!”[/color] Kamek cried out in distress above as the sudden loss of weight made his broom lurch up, throwing him back into the guild hall and causing to crash onto the spirit covered table. 

[hr]

Down bellow the Guild master, who had revealed himself to be a dice headed demon serving card game master called Gneidxick. After shooting a few angry but ineffectual fireballs at the red nosed fiend Bowser got over their predicament with surprising speed.

[color=FD0000]”So kinda like Mario party then? Only with fights instead of mini-games. Yeah I can work with that.”[/color] He said casually after the rules had been explained before adding that [color=FD0000]”This should be easy. Or really really really really annoying.”[/color]  

It wasn't exactly the cutest aesthetics of the mushroom kingdom, and it might smell incredibly foul to the Koopa, but from board game tables to pinball machine’s Bowser had been in many a shrunk down situation and so this didn’t phase him at all.

The Courier also seemed to take this all his stride too, betting the dice headed honcho that they’d be able to take on every single miniboss without taking a single casualty. That they could do it Bowser had no disagreement with, his ego fully restored by a nights rest. That the Courier had tried to make this deal without any input from Bowser, who was supposedly his boss, he most certainly did take issue with.

He growled briefly at the cowboy to demonstrate his displeasure and then complained that, [color=FD0000]”That’ll take forever.”[/color] before immediately making things worse by saying that [color=FD0000]”I bet we can take two of these goons at once, no problem.”[/color]