[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] - (67/70) EXP (+6), [b]Level 5[/b] - (36/50) (+6), [b]Level 4[/b] - (0/40) (+6)
[b]Location:[/b] The End
[b]Word Count:[/b]1584[/center]

The situation was becoming quite dire. While they could wail on the dragon with impunity now that the healing crystals had all been taken out, the fact remained that it was still a [i]freaking dragon[/i] and unleashed a barrage of acid breath as well as had the physical strength to create localized typhoons. The rest of them, or most of them at least, just felt so small and insignificant compared to something like that! 

Cuphead recognized the situation he was in and took the Ace cadet’s offered hand, bailing on the ride before things got too dicey. Still, it wasn’t entirely enough to keep the little guy from flying away once the Ender dragon unleashed her might and he had to be saved yet again, this time by the giant bee Sectonia. [color=red]”Gosh, what a swell rescue! Ya know, I’ve got a friend back in Inkwell Isle you might get along with! Her name is Rumor Honeybottoms!.”[/color] With that in mind he adjusted his straw, mimed pulling up his sleeve, and charged in with a determined grimace all the while firing off his peashooter at the dragon.

The Courier was not so lucky. Having dealt such large wounds to the dragon, it seemed to have it out for him and he couldn’t blame the thing. Her swooping created a tailwind that sent him and his chocobo flying and there was nothing he could do about it. They wildly tumbled through the air out of control, about to crash into the hard ground! Reacting as quick as he could, he let loose one of the two pokeballs attached to his belt, and in a flash of light Ivories appeared on the ground, between puddles of acid.

“Don! Phan!” it cried, ready for battle.

[color=tan]”Soft landing!”[/color] the Courier hollered, as Drumstick thrashed wildly beneath him.

“Donphan!” Ivories acknowledged the order and immediately stomped the ground, using Bulldoze to turn out the earth. Packed dirt loosened, rocks cracked into sand, and much of the acid got absorbed up. The Courier and Drumstick landed in the dirt for a softer, but still painful landing with a loud [i]crack![/i]

“CAAAAAW!” the chocobo cried, wailing in pain.

The Courier jumped up, wincing a bit as he felt he had dislocated his knee. A quick adjustment, and small yelp, and it was back in place, but his trusted mount wouldn’t be so lucky. [color=tan]”Good job, Ivories. Return.”[/color] As the donphan warped back into her pokeball, the Courier looked over Drumstick. Her leg was broken. She wouldn’t be of any more use in this fight. With a sigh he jabbed a stimpack into her and helped her back up. The chem would speed up the healing process and mend the wound, but her bone still needed to be set and that wasn’t an option right now.

[color=tan]”Git on outta here, hide behind one o’ them pillars far off. Git!”[/color] With a low coo, the chocobo acknowledged her master’s orders. Even if the animals couldn’t understand his words, somehow the meaning always made it through. She began a slow trot, more of a limping hop, off the distance.

The Courier adjusted his rawhide hat and glared at the dragon. [color=tan]”Now you done pissed me off.”[/color]

Elsewhere, Jak and Daxter were riding the jet board without any worries of the acid being dropped down on them. As long as they didn’t let it fall right on their heads, their jet board would simply hover above the danger even if the entire place completely flooded! But that overconfidence cost them as they forgot about the natives of this land: the Endermen. While doing a flip, Daxter accidentally locked eyes with one of the tall creatures blending into the black environment and it attacked. The impact knocked both heroes off the jet board as a wave of acid came washing over toward them! 

[color=darkorange]”JAAAAAAAAAK!”[/color]

Jak grunted in response and made expert use of his acrobatics. He turned the impact roll on the ground into one of his iconic roll jumps, Daxter barely hanging on by the shoulders. He managed to grab the jet board, but there was no time to hop back on it to surf over the acid wave. Instead he once again became Light Jak and took to the air, but even that wasn’t enough to completely avoid the danger as the acid completely submerged his left foot.

Though mute in his Light form, Jak’s face communicated the pain quite well. He kept rising in order to find a better staging point for their counter attack, but ended up picking up another passenger along the way.

Cuphead saw the wave of acid coming and had little options. Another globule of the stuff was falling, but this one was different: it was [i]pink![/i] [color=red]”Hot dog!”[/color] he said, jumping up into the air, he flipped, parrying off the pink acid and nullifying it in the same process as giving himself a boost. With a mid-air dash, he landed right on Jak’s back.

[color=darkorange]”What’s the big idea, kitchen-ware? This is [i]my[/i] spot!”[/color] Daxter grumbled.

Just then an enderman, the same that Daxter had already unwittingly antagonized, appeared from literal thin air, swiping at the ottsel. It got a blast of Cuphead’s peashooter EX for its trouble and blinked away, heavily injured.

Daxter blinked silently while Cuphead smugly smiled at him, and no more words were exchanged. Jak dropped them all off at the top of one of the obsidian spires as the dragon was making another assault.

[color=red]”I’ve got an idea! It’s, well, a pretty gross idea, but it might end up swell!”[/color] Cuphead exclaimed. He backed up, then took a running start and leaped from the edge of the spire toward the ender dragon! He grabbed the handle of his own head and took it off, like one would lift any ordinary cup, and swung hard. A bright yellow liquid splashed out from the inside of his head toward the boss monster, a technique that Sectonia had become intimately familiar with. [color=red]”Cupate!”[/color] he cried out, sticking his head back in place where it belonged and changing direction with a mid-air dash to return to the spire.

Daxter gagged himself to prevent from throwing up on the spot.

Down on the lower levels, the Courier was checking his ammunition for the anti-material rifle. Only three bullets left. He would have to make them count. Blazermate had called out that the monster’s weak point was the head and he had to chuckle at such an obvious statement. Of course, [i]most[/i] things were weak in the head. Still, he’d seen crazy things, so it was nice to have it confirmed. He took aim with the rifle but noted that the thing was moving around too much to get a good shot at its cranium, such a small target compared to the rest of its body. Plus at that distance… He didn’t have the stamina left to make use of VATS, not without another hit of jet, but there was another option. He still had 2 doses of turbo left in his GRX implant.

Dose one activated. Five seconds of super speed. The world slowed to a crawl from his point of view, while to others it looked like a colored wind was darting across the battlefield. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time up. He crossed a great distance, the dragon was so much closer, but it still kept whipping around high in the air.

Dose two activated. Now it may as well have been a snail swimming slowly across the sky. He lined up the scope and trained it on the beast’s head. [i]BOOM! BOOM! BOOM![/i] That was it. All the shots for the anti-material rifle were spent, shell casings fell to the ground as time sped back up. 

Jak’s light dispersed as loud booms echoed across the End like a machinegun, that rifle being fired off incredibly fast. Not to be outdone, he glared at the dragon. [color=sandybrown]”Everyone! Get[/color] [color=violet]away!”[/color] His body changed again, rippling with muscle and turning dark purples and blacks. Dark eco surged across his body. Daxter took note of what this meant.

[color=darkorange]”He’s not kidding everyone, get away from that dragon if you don’t wanna die!”[/color] Daxter himself hopped off of Jak, taking shelter behind Cuphead of all people.

Jak charged forward toward the dragon and, with a mighty leap, crossed the distance until he was right above it, then dove straight down with his clawed fist outstretched. He channeled every last bit of dark eco in his body into the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etFeD_we-yI]Dark Bomb.[/url] As soon as he made contact with something, whether it be the dragon’s body or the ground below if she somehow dodged, a huge wave of dark eco would explode outward, likely killing anything caught in its path.