[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3]
Level 6 Tora (50/60) and Level 5 Poppi (45/50)
[b]Location:[/b] Snipers' Mountain, the Land of Adventure
[b]Word Count:[/b] 718[/center]

Under the cover of white smoke the Ace Cadet retrieved Blazermate, reviving her behind the gigantified tree where Peach took shelter. The medabot's short-lived incapacitation came to an end as she found herself face-to-face with her savior and a sovereign, all pretty much pinned down. With the obfuscating cloud covering just less than half the distance to the base of Spiral Mountain, the trio couldn't rely on it to make safe their approach, so they were left seeking other options. Peach examined the gleaming disc the monster hunter somehow procured. “That looks like a trophy base. They appeared when we fought the Subspace Army a long time ago. If thrown at an enemy it could make them into a miniature trophy permanently, an actual collectible. But they need to be weakened first, or it'll bounce off.” She took the risk of sneaking a peak at the tower, but the snipers seemed otherwise engaged. “That might not be possible. Plus, it could also deny us their spirits. We could definitely use strong ones like those. “Sectonia made it to the top, but in despite the insect queen's size and power, she would need to content with Link up there. And from tournaments prior, Peach knew that to be no joke whatsoever.

At the same time, Fox sprang into action and Hat Kid made her intrepid move. With nothing more than her slender scooter as mobile cover, the child hoped to get close enough to gain entry to the tower, but she owed her success to Fox. At the moment the End was picking off Cuphead before returning his attention to Bowser's tree to search for Kamek, and with the Sniper, Gough, and Link all temporarily distracted by Sectonia, only Quiet and Imani remained to scan for targets. Quiet took her best two shots at Fox, and despite his speed got frightfully close, only narrowly missing him the first time as he bounded off a tree and the second time as he swung off the rope bridge. Instead her bullet severed one of the handrail ropes, leaving the two halved to dangle. Imani, meanwhile, was looking the wrong way. Fox made it into the tower's entrance, and Hat Kid reached the spiral path along with Mimikyu and Banjo and Kazooie, whose their knowledge of the terrain allowed them to navigate the moat and emerge at just the right spot. The four began their climb, and Imani took notice. Climbing to the edge of the tower, the crossbowwoman began to fire black arrows straight down, hoping to hit one of the invaders as they hurried upward.

A moment later, Sectonia's raid ended abruptly. No sooner did she get sent careening away from the parapets by Gough, however, than Courier 6 soared skyward, hurled by his heracross. All eyes who could spare a moment lay on him as he took aim down the barrel of Michael's own sniper rifle, the power of which anyone who braved the Mushroom Kingdom could attend to. In rapid succession he emptied the magazine, sending six lethal payloads toward snipers' nest below. The odds weren't great, but the Courier took worse ones, and this time his gambler's intuition paid off. One bullet struck Gough, elliciting a bellow of pain as the giant staggered. Four hit the stonework, blasting stone into slivers and dust, but nothing compromising. The last hit Quiet square in her bare back, killing her in an instant and blowing her spirit off the tower to float slowly down. In a lucky twist of fate, her death spared the trophification of Donnie a moment later, whose indecision plagued him so much that he had yet to emerge from his original cover.

Unfortunately, the Courier did not get to see the fruit of his labor. The Sniper, having professionally withstood the shock of several high-caliber near-misses, held his breath and pulled the trigger. A trophy of the Courier dropped from the sky, its momentum changed by the impact. He bounced off part of the wall, once more off the ground, and into the river. “Now that was a proper bloody rootin',” he whispered, chambering his next shot.

He then watched cat-Bowser explode from the tree, growing in size rapidly. “You prancin' show pony,” he grumbled, almost incredulous at the lack of foresight. Sights fixed on Bowser the moment he emerged, and fingers laid on triggers, but right away the Koopa King started shrinking again. The unexpectedness of it all bought him a precious moment in which to hurl his hat, but by the time he leaped clear of the bent tree and started to grow again he took a shot from the End and then the Sniper in quick sequence. With his momentum partially canceled by the forced of the black arrows, his markedly normal-sized statue span through the air toward the tower. His hat never made it, instead receiving an arrow from Link midway, and Bowser himself smacked into the structure hard enough to dislodge a few bricks before dropping. His fine plan, having grabbed too much attention from such competent marksmen, amounted to little, and his trophy hit the ground near the edge of the Ace Cadet's smoke.

Shortly thereafter Tora awoke, carried to safety by Toadies and revived by Linkle. By his own words he expected what happened to him, but he looked shaken all the same. “Meeeh...snipypons sure quick on draw...” With no more ammunition, he couldn't do much, so instead he watched as his rabbit-eared friend started doing something. Her long hair turned bright blue and with a wave of her hands she sent out a wave of ice. It traveled along the ground toward the hill where Poppi took cover, growing a wall of freezing crystals. Though not perfect, with a number of holes that would readily admit any black arrow that came by, the construct meant that Tora and Poppi could reunite. “Oh, thank you, thank you!” Tora sang, and after Linkle sent out her cuccoos as decoys, the Nopon rushed forward himself. He sprinted along the wall as fast as his little legs could carry him, huffing and puffing. Atop the Tower, Link aimed an explosive arrow at the newly-erected cover, but thanks to the commotion made by Linkle's birds he couldn't get a good idea of where to shoot. When he did fire, his arrow ended up blowing apart the central section of the wall just a moment after Tora got clear. A few seconds more and the inventor leaped into his blade's arms, reunited at last.

“Masterpon made it!” Poppi remarked, smiling wide. “Poppi thought masterpon would bite it for sure!”

Tora laughed it off, though in truth he'd just about had a heart attack, and he hoped nobody heard him scream over the blast. “Meheheh, Poppi worry too much.” When she set him down, he looked at her determinedly. “Hey, Tora have idea now we together. If switch in ice core, can use Blade Arts to create cover so we get closer.”

Poppi's eyes lingered on Linkle's ice wall for a good long moment. “Did masterpon think of that all by self?”

A sigh escaped Tora. “No, obviously not, that part from Linkle. And we can't just make ice, only do ice damage, so cover will be fog. Tora idea is once we get close, we switch Wind core and use Noponic Storm while flying up. With giant mist storm, no way can snipeypons shoot us. Then, release storm and drill into tower where friends bash it.”

After a moment Poppi nodded, her derision replaced by respect. She knew her creator to be a doofus, but that didn't mean he wasn't sometimes a genius, too. “Okay, let's do it.”

Soon after, a volley of missiles flew out from behind cover. Poppi QT launched ice-imbued missiles from safety not at the tower but at the area in front of it where the Cadet laid down some smoke, just moments after Geralt and Bowser Jr got out of it. When the missiles exploded, freezing ether filled the air, joining with the smoke to create a think cloud of twinkling silver diamond dust. Into the mist boosted Poppi Alpha and Tora, with the Drill Shield in front carrying Tora along with its own thrusters while Poppi pushed from behind. Once close enough, Tora leaned back, the signal for Poppi to use Poppiswap and switch to wind. “Noponic...”

“Storm!” The artificial blade flooded the Drill Shield with ether, revving its bit into overdrive. A whirlwind gushed forth, collecting the fog and spewing it upward in a tremendous torrent of freezing mist. Up into the cloud flew the pair, until the face of the Spiral Mountain before them gave way to stone architecture.”Brace self!”

Poppi twisted nearly ninety degrees, changing the duo's direction from up to forward. The next instant the drill hit stone, and empowered by the might of wind, it tore through to deposit Tora and Poppi on the tower's base floor, behind Fox but ahead of Hat Kid, Mimikyu, and Banjo-Kazooie. The Nopon spat out a mouthful of stonedust. "Ptuh! Yucky!" He picked himself and looked around at the tower's empty confines. The whole way up stretched various levels of scaffolding, and a crude elevator dominated the middle. Not a stair in sight. "Huh. Well, that worked," he remarked, wondering what to do next. He didn't honestly expect to make it this far; maybe the others really had the snipers distracted. "Fun too, meh?"

"...Yeah..." Poppi said, sounding dazed.