[center][h3][color=lightblue]Donnie[/color] and [color=red]Cuphead![/color][/h3]
[color=lightblue][b]Level 5[/b]: (36/50) + 3 = [b]39/50 EXP[/b][/color]
[b]Level 2[/b] - (8/20) (+3)
[b]Location:[/b] Canyon outside Subspace
[b]Word Count:[/b]1679[/center]


Things were going great. Sure, the Flying Machine got electrocuted a few times, but the leather bits of Xuen’s Battlegear helped insulate Donnie from the electricity, and who didn’t expect the fliers to pose a threat? Still, he wasn’t sure the engines could take much more of this, and he didn’t intend to die in an autogyro crash today.

Then Vivi popped out of existence, and Donnie remembered the problem with Strikers: They could only manifest for a few moments at a time. He swore internally.

Thankfully, he had another solution. He’d seen the peashooters flying from the bottom of his aircraft, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume that Cuphead was down there. He’d seen the kid fire the same projectiles only a few minutes ago, after all.

“OI, CUPHEAD!” he yelled over the manic whirring of the rotors and the din of battle. “I KNOW YOU’RE DOWN THERE! I’M GONNA NEED YOU TO SHOOT THE FLIERS!”

[color=red]”Golly Donnie!”[/color] Cuphead said from right behind the monk. [color=red]”Do you always holler this much?”[/color] He chuckled, almost literally melting away back down into the underside of the flying machine where he resumed his iron grip with one hand while firing off at crazy speeds with the other. He focused his fire on spaak in the distance that was lobbing lightning at them. Just because it was a cloud didn’t mean he couldn’t wallop it good, right? After all, he had walloped a genie and several ghosts before, and they were kind of like clouds! After a second or two of concentrated fire, it dissipated just like the mooks back home on Inkwell Isle would.

Cuphead turned his attention to the side where a trowlon was coming toward them, carrying a couple Primids like some 90s Disney animated movie! Cuphead grinned and began firing off at that. It proved to be a fair bit more mobile than the spaak so he missed some shots, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t keep up with. After about three seconds of leading his target, the trowlan was taken out and its small entourage found themselves plummeting to certain doom. [color=red]”Haha! This is fun!”[/color] Cuphead cheered!

His joy was interrupted by a sudden electric shock! Another spaak had hit the machine with a bit of lightning, and despite being made of ceramic the little cup wasn’t exactly insulated. The electricity caused the nerves in his hand to tighten so he thankfully never lost his grip, but even a small hit was a big detriment to the easily broken Cuphead. Two long cracks worked their way down his head, and a rather sizable bandage appeared from nowhere on his chest, as if to indicate his injury in a “family friendly” sort of way.

[color=red]”Why I outta!”[/color] Cuphead snaked his way back up the flying machine and then [i]jumped[/i] up in the air! With both hands free he slapped both fists together and a sizable blue energy ball flew out, looking eerily similar to Ryu’s signature hadouken. The fireball connected and instantly poofed the cloud monster like it was never there! And Cuphead even landed back on the flying machine to boot!
“Hang on, I got this!” Donnie said, in a lower-but-still-loud voice, recognizing that perhaps what he said earlier was overkill. Donnie pressed a few buttons to put the flying machine in a stationary hovering mode, then he cast a spell. His hands glowed with mystical energy, and Cuphead was surrounded by a bunch of green mist that seemed to soothe and heal his wounds. The bandage popped out of existence and the cracks healed.

Cuphead looked around at his injuries with wonder, then slapped his knee. [color=red]”Hot dog!”[/color]

Unfortunately, in that time, a Trowlon had managed to get into boarding range of the Flying Machine and a bunch of Sword Primids rapidly tried to do their worst to Donnie and everyone in the machine.

For his part, Donnie slammed the first Primid’s head into the roll cage, knocking out its lights before dropping it to the ground below. Another Primid managed to a slice against his arm, revealing that the beam swords seemed to inflict some kind of full-body damage rather than directly cut the opponent, leading the monk to rear back in pain. Donnie, having enough of this, activated Touch of Karma on the offending Primid, and every other slash simply redirected the damage onto the poor bastard who tried it in the first place, rapidly falling apart into Shadow Bugs.

As for everyone else on the Trowlon, they saw this display and seemed visibly confused, scared, and intimidated, not daring to make another move. Donnie capitalized on this with a Chi Burst that sent the three Primids left to their deaths. The Trowlon was still left, however, and with its payload gone, it was free to do whatever sinister tactic it pleased.

The trowlon seemed to realize that it wasn’t remotely able to combat the combined forces of Cuphead and Donnie, but it wasn’t the sort of monster to give up so easily. Rather than fly away, it ignored all self preservation instincts and flew straight for the upper propeller of the flying machine! If it got itself caught up in the mechanics, they’d have a one way ticket to the ground!

[color=red]”I’ve got this!”[/color] Cuphead said, jumping up toward the trowlon, but it was clear that his jump simply wouldn’t be enough to make it. Then out of nowhere the little cartoon gained a sudden burst of speed, dashing in a straight line for the creature and intercepting it! Cuphead grabbed the carpet-like creature and wrestled with it in the air, while it in turn wrapped around him like a mummy. It was in that instant Cuphead realized the folly of his maneuver… And began plummeting downward with the trowlon wrapped around his body.


“DAMMIT!” the monk yelled in a decidedly un-enlightened voice as he sent the Flying Machine, damaged as it was, plummeting downwards to keep up with the Trowlon. The Boom Biter would catch Cuphead in the explosion, the only way to help the child would be to cut him out!

Both of them rapidly fell hundreds of feet as Donnie reached out and sliced the Trowlon with a slash from one of the Fists. He had to get uncomfortably close, and tried not to hit Cuphead directly, but he couldn’t be sure. He followed this up with another slice, and then a third. He couldn’t exactly afford to be surgical when sending his autogyro in a death spiral, but it was the only way to free him.

Thanks to the powerful slashes of Donnie, the trowlon was heavily weakened and tattered, enough so that Cuphead could tear himself free in a burst of strength! [url=https://66.media.tumblr.com/66fcffc026e64191e601434d9ea9d1e2/tumblr_pajy36aURI1xvxoc6o2_250.gifv]His arms and legs stretched out a bit in bulges while his straw spun around and around in his head.[/url] He then spun in the air to face in the direction of the flying machine’s death dive and dashed forward through the air, grabbing onto the side of the machine. [color=red]”Thanks a million, Donnie!”[/color]

“Just helping a friend in need! Now, stand by for some turbulence!” The monk started to slow the descent of the Flying Machine as best he could, while still providing enough forward motion to get air over the top rotor. This sent the flying machine in a sharper parabolic arc than he would have liked: He felt the g-forces from stabilizing the aircraft getting to him, but such a short exposure at such a low airspeed would likely not cause significant, or even permanent, damage, possibly not even to the infamously-fragile Cuphead.

With that, the autogyro stabilized its flight path, and thankfully it wasn’t bothered by enemies for the time being. “Cuphead, you alright after all that?”

[color=red]”Swell!”[/color] Cuphead exclaimed, taking some potshots at one of those horn-headed freaks that shot out gusts of air. Another minion bit the dust.

Donnie tilted the control stick, and the Flying Machine started to dive downwards again, this time on a trajectory for the Brothers Grimm. It looked like he was going to use the truck bed as an impromptu helipad, which wasn’t a bad idea given the jagged, rocky canyon around them made the smooth truck bed the best option. It wouldn’t exactly be professional, but it would work.

“I’m bringing this thing down, we’re joining the land battle,” he explained to Cuphead as they descended. “The enemies are weak, but they’re smart, tactical, and have the numbers advantage. We’re all alone out here, and they know it. Why would the carpet-thing be so willing to throw its life away if it didn’t know that ten more would replace it? The best thing to do, I think, is to join our allies and stick to our strengths. I’m a melee fighter, and I can tell you’re not a sniper by trade.”

[color=red]”If I still had my charge shot I could prove you wrong!”[/color] Cuphead laughed, clearly unperturbed by the danger he was in.

With that, the Flying Machine jostled as it made landfall. “Well, here we are!” He got off, waited for Cuphead to get off, and dismissed the Flying Machine in a puff of smoke, leaping off the thirty-foot truck and yelling, “COME ON, LET’S DANCE!” Shifting into a flying kick, his chi-enhanced foot collided with the face of a red Nagagog like the fist of a demigod, causing it to fall over, stunned, before he rolled, stood, and began kicking ass in earnest.

Cuphead kept his position in the bed of the Grimm, using the walls as a position of cover while he popped up to spray dozens of peashots at any and all enemies he could pinpoint in all the chaos going around. And lord, there were a lot of enemies, so he didn’t have to search too hard!