[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3]
Level 6 Tora (48/60) and Level 5 Poppi (44/50)
[b]Location:[/b] No-man's Land, the Land of Adventure
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2292[/center]

[hider=For Hat Kid][center]You have acquired:
[b][url=https://www.ssbwiki.com/images/8/89/SSBURayGun.png]Ray Gun[/url][/b]
A beam weapon capable of quick successive staggering shots that don't drop, but it has only ten shots before becoming unable to fire 

[b][url=https://fireemblemwiki.org/w/images/thumb/9/98/FEMN_Iote%27s_Shield.png/200px-FEMN_Iote%27s_Shield.png]Iote's Shield[/url][/b]
A shield of fanciful design. Wielding it normalizes damage bonuses against the wielder that being a flier would incur, like arrows, lightning, and ice [/center][/hider]

[hider=For Banjo and Kazooie][center]You have acquired:
[b][url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/3/3c/Bytans.png/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20180311200227]Bytan Ball[/url][/b] x 4
Fun, super bouncy balls the size of oranges. If thrown hard and true they can deal a halfway decent smack, but that's no way to treat your playmates at recess, which would be where these toys are most applicable

[b]Primid Hat[/b] x 2
Little more than a stiff pale green cylinder hat with a small red feather, this sort of hat identifies Primids to one another and fellow soldiers of the Subspace Army. If worn by a Hat User, it imparts the mighty strength of one Primid! ...Which may or may not be an upgrade

[b][url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/3/32/Spiced_Meat_Icon.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20190330204055]Chicken Thigh[/url][/b]
Not very big, but it keeps pretty well and is fairly flavorful. Tastes like victory!

[b][url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/witcher/images/1/16/Tw3_monster_eye.png/revision/latest?cb=20160323142543]Monster Eye[/url][/b]
A crafting component for the various tiers of feline boots, feline silver swords, griffon armor, griffon swords, manticore armor, wolven armor, and wolven swords

[b]Trowlon-lon Milk[/b]
Don't be fooled by that lookalike bottle and label. Whatever that red stuff in there is, it isn't milk. Ingesting it will cause anyone to float upward at 5 meters per second for 5 seconds, then abruptly stop floating. 200 calories per serving, 5 servings per bottle. A great source of Vitamin Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[b][url=https://goombahsquad.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/5/6/29566909/3467489_orig.png]Steel Sword[/url][/b]
It is what it is. Nothing special about it, other than being better than iron.

[/center][/hider]

Wave two struck like a crashing wave, its muscle pitted against the heroes' heavy hitters while its guile sought to lift them off their feet. As the party fended off the Nagagogs and in their various ways evaded falling to their deaths off of Trowlons, the Ace Cadet charged into the thick of it with his mind set on the biggest prize. Its cleaving blades descended toward him, but the hunter deftly swerved out of the way. The scythe-points lodged in the ground, leaving the Greap wide open, and a lifetime of capitalizing on such opening in monsters made the Cadet more than capable of seizing the chance. Instead of leaping for its round, red head, however, he went for a less obvious weakness—the poles of its scythes. He brought his sword down on one in a heavy chop, but his one-handed blade was no axe. It jammed halfway through, leaving the Cadet a moment to wrench it free before the Greap pulled its own weapons loose and raised them up once more. 

A winged, insectoid shape darted overhead, raining lightning bolts, and one gravitated toward the Greap on account of its potlike metal body. It evidenced no effect on the body, but the head and scythes sizzled, lightly smoking. In silence the monster reoriented itself on the Ace Cadet and swung once more, its attack brutal but no less two-dimensional than list time. This time, however, one of its scythe-hafts snapped clean through thanks to the damage it sustained, and the incredibly oversized blade clattered to the stone. Not even pausing to acknowledge the injury, the Greap mechanically continued its assault with just one blade.

Nearby, in the area of the battlefield glut with the remaining Primids, Banjo and Kazooie cracked open a Ticken while Fox tore through a squad of the mooks, even taking out one overenthusiastic grenadier with its own explosive. With the enemy's reduced numbers Tora and Poppi could fight freely alongside them, steadily beating down Primid after Primid while weathering whatever the goons had to throw at them. Relying on the pair to grab enemy attention and open them up, Euden routinely cut in to cut their foes down, which proved to be a lethally efficient strategy until the last couple Borboras showed up to blast them, Banjo, Kazooie, and Fox back toward Brother Grimm. Linkle, who'd been thinning down their numbers, fought alongside her Cuckoos against a Ticken elsewhere. None other than Hat Kid heroically leaped into the fray, redirecting one Borboras' windstream to singlehandedly wreak havoc on the enemy formation. Bytans sailed away like errant volleyballs while Primids flopped end over end in comical fashion, and while the Subspace troopers blundered around, the heroes renewed their attack. Hat Kid joined them in the fray, bonking and bashing her little heart out.

More enemies arrived, but the kid never even touched the ground, a veritable whirlwind of flame and adorable fury. When she eventually did run out of steam, Tora, Poppi, and Euden gave her the breathing room she needed. “Meh, meh, meh!” shouted the Nopon, rocket-blasting himself upward to land on and squash a Bytan beneath his weight. The last Ticken approached, but Tora tossed the Mech Arms to Poppi. She blasted forward into a crazy spin, wildly ramping up her centripetal force until she was nothing more than a flaming blur. Her Mech Arm's backhand struck the Ticken's head, instantly shattering it and annihilating the bird within. Tora, meanwhile, moved to help Euden as he clashes swords with an Armight. Laughing to himself, the Nopon jumped up behind it, bounced once, and then clamped onto its back. With his wings he grabbed the Armight's helmet, then let go with his nubs to fall down. His weight and grip put the Armight into a backspin, flipping like a figure in a foosball game. Euden grinned, amused as he was thankful. “Great job!” He leaped into the air and came down atop the Armight in a flaming sword plunge, killing the fiend instantly. After regrouping, all three looked around but found only a couple stray Primids left, all under attack by Blazermate's zombies—especially the heavily-mutated [url=https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/276/531/large/avery-coleman-2-7-11.jpg?1471902193]thing[/url] that used to be a Nagagog.

Elsewhere, the heroes were wrapping up their own fights. Linkle's quick thinking and reflexes spared Peach a rendezvous with the clouds, instead trapping the offending Trowlon in ice. After Kamek's Toadies saved his hide, Bowser rejoined his crew to take out one of his two Nagagog challengers without much ceremony. Geralt disposed of his own Trowlon, one of the last to plague the heroes, before seeking out Blazermate. The Floow that decimated 6's entrenchment met its end at the Courier's hands after the man braved the jaws of death to rattle off a salvo of killer shotgun blasts at close range. With most of the fight elsewhere, he then took a shot at enlisting the Floow as his third and final Striker. Perhaps sensing oblivion, or the chance to dish out more pain, the strange spirit obeyed. It re-materialized in a flash, quickly floated over to where the fight with the injured Greap raged on, then let loose its agonizing cry. The barrage scarred the thing's pot-body and cut deep gashes into its head, leaving it on death's door. The Ace Cadet could easily finish it off at that point, provided they didn't get caught up in the Floow's scream attack, although as 6's Striker it could only deal a quarter of its true damage as friendly fire.

Of course, anyone could be forgiven for taking their eyes off the downed Greap for a moment to watch Jak's impressive jet board display as he took on the last Nagagog, which originally went for Bowser. In tandem came Donnie's daring rescue of a falling Cuphead, having been defending the skies and raining down fire until the little get got tangled up. Jak stunned the Nagagog it with a hard-hitting trick, which got follow up by a high-octane kick from Donnie. While it reeled the morph gunner took the chance to pulverize its guts with root-rotten slugs, filling the Nagagog with pain and infection. It fell to its knees, and the ground shook beneath the impact. It looked up to find Peach walking toward it, her new boomshot in hand. Before it could try to attack her a violent coughing fit sneezed it, and by the time it was done Peach was close enough to put it out of its misery. The boomshot's thunder turned half the monster to ash in an instant, and the rest went limp.

Peach took a deep breath and shouldered the weapon. She looked around at the battlefield. The chaos made the time fly by, but in truth it had been only minutes since her team got attacked. Now, the heroes stood victorious over the few remaining mooks. As she watched, the Engineer's sentry gun plugged a few holes in the final Bytan as it tried to replicate, then timed out and vanished alongside the monster. The last couple of Primids posed no threat. Still, Peach's face bore nothing but cold contempt. “Good work. Do not pity these things. They are scum,” she explained, inviting everyone to head her way. “Soulless minions of the Subspace Army, their sole existence is to get in the way of making things right. If their master is this region's champion, this upcoming brawl is going to be a rough one.” 

She turned to face the path leading into the canyons. “Make sure to restock your supplies and get healed. Let's not stick around to see if they have friends.” The Princess proceeded, leading the way. Prince Euden followed, with Tora and Poppi not far behind.

[hider=Results!]
[b]Party:[/b] [@Yankee]'s Ace Cadet, [@Archmage MC]'s Blazermate and Sectonia, [@DracoLunaris]'s Bower, Kamek, and Bowser Jr, [@ProPro]'s Courier 6, Jak & Daxter, and Cuphead, [@Genon]'s Donovan Lee, [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN]'s Geralt, [@Dawnrider]'s Hat Kid, Banjo & Kazooie, and Fox, [@Gentlemanvaultboy]'s Linkle, Tora & Poppi
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] 5 EXP
[b]Challenger Bonus:[/b] Ace Cadet
[b] Challenger Reward:[/b] [url=https://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/e/e4/TrophyBase.jpg/1200px-TrophyBase.jpg]Trophy Base[/url], +2 EXP
[i]The Challenger bonus goes to the bold. If your PC is the only one to deliberately take on an encounter's toughest enemy, the bonus is yours.[/i][/hider]

[hr]

The winding canyon path twisted every which way, the walls rising and falling, leading around the edges of precarious cliffs, through tunnels, and over bottomless pits. It branched several times, but as long as the heroes could see the sky, they knew where to go. The otherwordly purple-black mass loomed close by, marking their destination. Kamek, of course, performed scouting runs frequently, ensuring that the team took the right path. After a solid twenty minutes of travel, Kamek returned to report a large grassy basin area dead ahead in the canyonscape, sitting right on the precipice of the great distortion. Tora, glancing around at the dusty stone, wondered how a verdant valley could be so close. But sure enough, as the heroes continued, scraggly yellow grass began to crop, getting thicker and greener the farther they got. Something seemed...off, however. Things looked normal enough, but they didn't feel quite right. Maybe it was the air itself, affected by its time in close proximity to the anomaly. As the heroes entered a final tunnel, Tora took a deep breath, then shook himself to loosen his tense muscles.

Ahead, the light grew closer and closer until the party emerged into the light of day. When their eyes adjusted, they found themselves on the edge of a sand-colored path, staring out across a roughly circular valley surrounded by tall cliffs. It had trees, a river, even fields of what appeared to be wheat and a pretty waterfall. And it had a mountain in its center, shaped like a corkscrew, with a hanging bridge attached to its top that led into the mouth of a giant stone head. Just beyond that lay the anomaly's edge.

[center][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/i/2a152e3c-fc2f-47d8-85a8-049fd02c8bde/ddg4tyq-e4616a9a-6baa-4300-a8d4-564ff603e17e.jpg[/img][/center]

A few moments after the heroes took in the sights, something shifted just above the mountain. From a singular point came a burst of light, followed by an entity most familiar to many present. [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ssb/images/5/59/3DS-0.png/revision/latest?cb=20181119152513]Master Hand[/url] floated in place, making just one motion. It spread its fingers wide in a flourish motion, creating a bubble shield around itself that then turned invisible, then relaxed. Once the entity was at ease, a most unwelcome, unnatural voice manifested in the vibration of the very air.

[i]”Seekers of restoration, coveters of light. You have not yet balked from the arduous road you have undertaken. One light you have claimed of the thirteen. But if you imagined this one as easily taken, you are as foolish as that who bore the first. A monstrous thing waits before you, its otherwordly power a terror to behold. Yet before you throw yourselves to the slaughter, I will stop you here. Observe.”[/i]

Master Hand zoomed upward, then snapped its fingers. A blinding flash filled the area, and when it faded a [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/3/3a/Giant_archer.jpg/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20160526192455]tower[/url] stood atop Spiral Mountain. More importantly, six figures stood upon it. Four were adults, all holding rifles: an [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/teamfortress/images/8/8f/Sniper.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20170717231321]Assassin[/url], a [url=https://img.favpng.com/24/1/8/gigantic-video-game-character-motiga-png-favpng-CCFSPsfpZ4BT3bmgRFR5fJ5QS.jpg]Sharpshooter[/url], an [url=https://miro.medium.com/max/902/1*QHdsZ3bfO9EP77-QM-MZUg.jpeg]Elder[/url], and a [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/metalgear/images/4/4b/4d68aa283cfd93230e1f70b70a1e4ee11378467692_full.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130906154435]Skinbreather[/url]. One was younger, a [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/pm-universe/images/b/b1/The_Legend_of_Zelda_WiiU_Artwork.png/revision/latest?cb=20190827030029]Boy[/url] wielding a strange-looking bow. The last stood above them all, a [url=https://66.media.tumblr.com/4441c6b310aa1343b67548aa17ee6732/tumblr_nhjsmgYYIa1tvfm0ko3_250.jpg]Giant[/url] taller than five men, with a colossal greatbow. Within the eyes of the six snipers burned the crimson of Galeem.

Over the head of the giant archer, Master Hand flexed its fingers. [i]”I have made these spirits' weapons Binary. Every shot, a zero or a one. Pass or fail. If your skills are found wanting, you will not proceed.”[/i] The entity floated upward, glowed, then disappeared. Yet its voice remained a moment longer. [i]“Fire at will.”[/i]

The heroes had three seconds. All six snipers, save the giant, moved to the edge of the top of the tower. They crouched behind the battlements, peering through their scopes or down the arrows of their bows. Three red dots darted across the landscape, homing in on their targets. Euden's eyes were wide. “What's going on?”

Peach knew. Though no veteran of the battlefields, her time skirmishing against the rabbids taught her a thing or two about weapons. Luigi used a weapon capable of dealing high damage from an incredible distance, and these people were clearly preparing a similar attack. Two of them wielded bows, but Peach didn't doubt for a second that they'd compare to their rifle-shooting fellows. “Scatter!” she screamed, turning to run behind a nearby boulder “Get to cover!”

Euden panicked, still clueless about the enemy's weaponry, and turned to follow her. Slow on the draw and headed for cover that was too far away, he got painted by a red dot well before he got close to safety. The End shot first, but onlookers weren't in for an invisible bullet. Instead, a [url=https://thumbnail.imgbin.com/4/8/1/imgbin-super-smash-bros-brawl-bowser-luigi-wii-cannon-ammunition-vcskr1xqr8yhZw8RiPHzyP2jm_t.jpg]literal black arrow[/url] zoomed through the air. It caught Euden in the shoulder, blasting straight through him, and a golden light spread across him from the impact point. A split second later he fell to the ground, gray-toned and paralyzed as if turned to stone.

A handful of other shots peppered the heroes as they scattered. At the end of the volley came one of the Boy's arrows. It hit the ground late but exploded on impact in a golden dome several meters in diameter. The sight of it going off drove Tora to hunker down even farther into his patch of tall grass, terrified. “Princeypon gone in one hit!? M-m-meh, meh!” he stammered. “Quick Poppi! Change to Alpha!”

Hiding behind a tree nearby, Poppi nodded and transformed. In Alpha mode she had a smaller profile and stronger defense, not that it seemed to matter. The activity behind the tree caught the attention of the Giant, who without even looking took aim and unleashed his own arrow. Like a ballista bolt it hurtled through the air, and on contact ripped the tree to kindling in a tremendous blast. With a cry Poppi jetted away, and the Sharpshooter took aim. Her shot missed Poppi by a hair as the artificial blade dove behind a small hill, instead destroying a flower patch in a flurry of petals. Taking aim once again, the snipers prepared to fire on anyone who moved, and in the case of the Giant, made a distinct sound.

[center][i]Note: the Ace Cadet's [b]Palico Rescue[/b] Power did not activate to save Euden because the Dark Arrows do not deal damage, instead turning their targets into trophies by attacking their spirits. The Dark Arrows are slower than bullets and can be evaded but are very fast. Trophies can be revived if another hero touches their bases, but the process takes a moment. While not lethal, this Master Order is very dangerous thanks to both the snipers' Binary weapons and their teamwork. Mistakes will result in getting trophified, and on top of that, at least one hero will be incapacitated every GM update as the snipers' strategy progresses. For the sake of fairness this toll will prioritize characters from players with more than one. This toll can be waived if a sniper is successfully eliminated.[/i][/center]