[center][h3][color=tan]Courier 6[/color] and [color=sandybrown]Jak &[/color] [color=darkorange]Daxter[/color] and [color=red]Cuphead![/color][/h3]
[b]Level7[/b] - (22/70) EXP (+3), [b]Level 4[/b] - (31/40) (+3), [b]Level 2[/b] - (5/20) (+3)
[b]Location:[/b] Lumbridge -> Subspace
[b]Word Count:[/b]2087[/center]

It was a good solid amount of hours that passed by before everyone gathered out in front of the guild hall again in order to head out on the infamous G rank hunt. Not knowing what to expect, everyone had to prepare for anything, and that’s exactly what the Courier intended to do. He had Gaige-Tron flit about gathering materials to feed his construction line of chem crafting and came up with a pretty good amount of helpful items, both for himself and for the allies in his posse. Jak and Daxter had to blow off some steam after the trials and chills of the Dead Zone, and while they fully intended to return and take down that Qliphoth tree, it was nice to be somewhere else getting some much needed rest. As for Cuphead, “preparation” wasn’t really a term he was all that familiar with. Instead the little cup dodged and rolled about town in a hurry, looking over all kinds of things and getting into some (light) mischief. Still, he was ready and willing to help with a big ol’ grin.

While everyone gathered around, the Courier stepped in with his new supplies on hand. First he spotted Blazermate and gave her a bottle of buffout. [color=tan]”This here is called buffout. It’s a super steroid that’ll give a massive boost to strength, endurance, an’ let’em take more hits.”[/color] He then spotted Linkle and handed her a glass bottle of something green and glowing. It wouldn’t be entirely out of the question for someone to think it was radioactive. [color=tan]”Howdy lil’ lady. Here’s yer uh… Green ‘potion.’ If’n this on’ make ya go wild, nothin’ will I reckon.”[/color] 

Cuphead slid up reeeeeeal close to the Courier. [color=red]”Whacha got for me, cowboy? Huh?”[/color] 

The Courier bit his lip, still visibly uncomfortable with the little cartoon. [color=tan]”Y’all didn’t make a request so I got nothin’ fer ya. Now let go a’my duster if’n ya please.”[/color]

Nearby Jak was coming into the fold himself, Daxter riding atop his shoulder. All these people gathered for a single hunt? Oh, this was gonna be [i]good.[/i] [color=sandybrown]”Count me in. I can head back to the Dead Zone once this is wrapped up.”[/color]

The Courier conversed with those around him, Jak kept to himself unless spoken to first, and Cuphead darted around saying hello and trying to get to know everyone. After all, if they were going to be friends, they’d need to get to know one another, right? Gaige-Tron was causing quite the ruckus demanding more personal space because “anarchy needs to breathe,” so there was that. After a few minutes the Courier called out his pokemon and began to feed them, as well as his chocobo mount, Drumstick. Then as the last of them gathered around, Princess Peach took charge. She was good at that, and only seemed to have become more assertive since bonding with that reaper guy.

Apparently the trip would be a long one, over some nasty rough terrain. They were warned that anybody trying to ride an animal wouldn’t be able to keep up, which caused the Courier to wince. He [i]really[/i] did not care for riding in cars and other machines. Maybe that was weird for a skilled robot and computer engineer like himself, but it was the truth. He was comfortable with his own two feet, or with a living animal breathing beneath him. But if it was the situation, it was the situation. He couldn’t change that. At least the princess had some people working overtime to reconfigure that mammoth of a truck for extra space. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to be leaving Drumstick behind! She would have her own seat in the back and if anybody had a problem with it, he’d have Gaige-Tron slap’em upside the head.

Jak opted to travel on his own using the jet board. After all, it had a second speed function that would allow it to keep up with the fastest vehicles, it would hover over most troublesome terrain, and was far more maneuverable. The way he said it made it seem like he was giving the others more elbow room, but the truth was more in line with his loner nature: he just didn’t want to be around that many people. Besides, the wind rushing against his skin was the best feeling in the world! And he wouldn’t be [i]completely[/i] alone, he’d have Dax the whole way.

Cuphead, he was just excited to be coming along. Soon as the truck took off he was out of his seat looking around like a little bouncing ball of energy, checking out every nook and cranny. He was open to conversation the whole way, but didn’t engage anyone first. The sights all around the landscape were just too cool to ignore and he wanted to drink (pun intended) it all in. 

The journey was definitely long, longer than anything they’d experienced in the Land of Adventure thus far, and had a couple snags. As they neared their enemy’s territory, more and more monsters came out of the woodworks. The Courier chuckled as some flocked of one eyed bats came close but couldn’t keep up, and openly dismissed the bullet-people he had already dispatched on his wiggler-quest. They weren’t worth the time. Jak had to suppress the urge to clear them all out. Fighting was a thrill, one of the darker thrills, but he couldn’t afford to feed into it right now, not when they had places to be. If these creatures couldn’t even hit the giant monster truck, they had no hope of hitting him on the jet board.

When finally their destination came into sight, the description given by the guildmarm was quite apt: it looked like a big sphere of discolored space. Unfortunately it was on the other side of a large cliff, one that couldn’t be crossed back so easily. Peach kicked the Grim into overdrive and jumped that canyon! [color=tan]”YEEEEHAW! OH SHIT WAIT NO!”[/color] the Courier cried out, realizing he wasn’t secure. Before he could go flying out, Gaige-Tron latched onto his arm and kept him grounded.

Cuphead fell over, holding on for dear life and laughing with sheer joy the whole way. Only once they came to a complete stop did he realize something was wrong. [color=red]”Aw shucks,”[/color] he said, standing back up and patting himself off. [color=red]”I chipped!”[/color] He pointed to a small crack on the side of his head where a little flake of porcelain had come off, then shrugged. [color=red]”Looks like I’ve been shaken, not stirred! Hahahaha! Oh well. Hey Blazermate, you can fix this in a jiffy, can’t ya?”[/color]

Back on the other side of the ravine, Jak was speeding up toward the jump. He and Daxter had their goggles down, protecting their eyes from wind shearing and stray dust particles. [color=darkorange]”Uh, Jak? You’re not thinking of doing what I think you’re thinking about, right? Jak? JAK? JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”[/color]

[color=sandybrown]”WOOHOO!”[/color] Jak took the jump as fast as the jetboard could carry him and started pulling out all kinds of tricks. He spun around and backward for several rotations, kickflipped the board over his head and back under, spun the board around while he flipped over it, and finally landed back on the jet board as it in turn landed on the Brother Grimm’s bed railing, where he grinded along until reaching the truck’s cab and hopped off on top of the vehicle. The jetboard reattached to Jak’s back, while Daxter desperately clutched his friend’s leg like a parasite, shaking violently. 

[color=darkorange]”Is it over?”[/color] Daxter asked weakly.

[color=sandybrown]”Yeah,”[/color] Jak answered.

The ottsel opened his eyes and carefully, slowly detached himself from Jak’s leg… Then promptly lost his balance and fell flat on his face. [color=darkorange]”NEVER do that again!”[/color] he moaned, face planted on the roof of the Grimm.

Meanwhile Bowser was talking to Peach and Fox about how they should recognize what was going on, and how this area was ruled by someone named Tattoo (wait, no, Tabuu). Of course, he was cut off as a canon was fired into the group, and Tora jumped in the way to intercept it like the good fluffy tank he was. [color=tan]”Well, time t’go ta work, hombres.”[/color] The Courier hopped on top of Drumstick and spurred the bird on.

“Yeah! Gun fight, woo!” shouted Gaige-Tron, rolling on after him.

[color=red]”Golly, what a bunch of weirdos,”[/color] Cuphead commented on the nature of their enemies, the irony of his own weirdness completely lost on him. He took off running, finger outstretched and firing dozens if not hundreds of peashots in his charge.

[color=sandybrown]”Looks like we’ll be needing a little more air support,”[/color] Jak said.

[color=darkorange]”Oh no. Please don’t tell me we’re about to go back uUUUUUUP!”[/color] Light Jak took to the sky, Daxter moving onto Jak’s back between the shoulders, right between the ethereal wings of light. Jak handed his buddy the morph gun and Daxter grinned. [color=darkorange]”Now this is more like it! You drive-”[/color] He cocked the weapon into vulcan fury mode. [color=darkorange]”I shoot.”[/color]

The Koopa Troop unleashed a literal army into the enemies while BJ disrupted the enemy lines further with his graffiti. Donnie took to the air with his dwarven flying machine, accompanied by a striker he had recently obtained. The Courier charged into the fray with his shotgun in hand, flanking the subspace enemies engaged with the koopa army. Drumstick ran alongside their flank as he took shots at them from the side. Gaige-Tron stayed close, not attacking but acting as a robot shield for any stray fire. Some energy beams and sound blasts went his way but the customized securitron hopped in the way and activated its eradishield to take the hit, which gave the Courie an opportunity to punish his attackers with prejudice. [color=tan]”Ain’t nobody gonna harm a feather on my Drumstick!”[/color] he shouted.

Light Jak circled round up in the air as Daxter fired the vulcan fury with far greater skill than his tiny body would suggest, being able to handle the recoil just as well as, perhaps even better than, Jak. Of course if there was one thing the ottsel was good at, it was taking a hit. And another hit. And another hit. He got injured a lot, so the kick on this thing, pfft. Whatever, the point was that these flying enemies would be a big pain against Kamek’s clones and the dwarven flying machine, so Daxter kept those fliers off their tail… Until the vulcan fury ran out of ammo, that is.

Fumbling, Daxter changed settings to the latest yellow eco setting, the penetrating spear, and accidentally misfired the gun! A high velocity yellow spear shot out, spinning, and skewered three feyesh through the eyes. [color=darkorange]”That’ll work!”[/color]

Meanwhile, Cuphead was… Wait, where [i]was[/i] Cuphead?! Oh, there he was! The little guy had hitched a ride on Donnie’s flying machine! He was gripping onto it from the bottom with one hand, the funny little stowaway, and rapidly firing off shots in every which direction. Despite his odd behavior and impulsive nature, it seemed the little cup was actually well versed in the importance of teamwork as he was taking out enemies that came near the rest of the fighters from angles they weren’t paying attention to. It was one such stray shot that alerted the Courier to their situation, and the mailman formulated a strategy.

The Courier came to a stop along the edge of the canyon path. [color=tan]”Time t’ hunker down, Gaige-Tron! C’mon out, Bastion! Lakelurk! You too, Ivories an’ Bugfoot!”[/color] Every one of the Courier’s minions, his pokemon and his strikers, appeared. Implicitly understanding the plan, Bastion morphed into sentry gun mode atop the cliff edge and, with this vantage point began to mow down enemies bottlenecked below. Gaige-Tron and Bugfoot held their ground as the last line of defense around Bastion, while Ivories rolled out in quick skirmishes to trample over enemies then return. The lakelurk was on anti-air duty, firing out sonic blasts at any feyesh and armights that dared get too close.