[center][img]https://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/b/b2/Koopa_Troop_artwork.png/658px-Koopa_Troop_artwork.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,289 (+3)
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]/////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////// (33/80)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Dead Zone - Sundered Avenue
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While there was some resistance, from Linkle of all people, to the idea of bailing in short order the gang was out the door and retreating from the tower and towards the region’s third miniboss. Contrary to what Bowser was hoping, getting outside did not solve the flood problem. 

[color=FD0000]”IS THERE NO END TO THESE THINGS!”[/color] He roared while using his non spirit carrying hand to pick up a flood combat form in-order to use its body as a mace to beat several others over the head with. 

The fact that their new ride had smashed into the building should probably have given away the state of the outside world, but then the king was never the smartest, and he had had a lot to deal with indoors with the undead swarm and the utter pain that had been the two fireproof Pokemon combat forms. Their spirits were now his, clutched in one hand and still unused, mainly because the King could not hear himself think to decide how to use them over the sounds of battle and the blaring siren attached to the top of the stolen shockdozer. The siren was so annoying that it somehow acted as a weapon, knocking warrior forms and infectors off of the car whenever they tried to clamber on top of it. 

While some of the gang could squeeze inside the vehicle, Bowser stayed outside. Even shrunk down it would have been cramped, and his spiky shell would be something of a hazard as the machine veered to and fro thanks to Blazermates erratic driving. So he stayed outside and sized himself back up to make himself as tough as possible. Fortunately, the vehicle was slow enough that he could just about keep up on foot. Unfortunately, that meant that theirs was a rather slow getaway, one that the hordes of flood found outside were able to swarm them during the start of their escape. While the front of the dozer made quick work of anything standing right in the way, it was the sides and rear that were where the danger lay, as skittering infestors and clawed combat forms tried to grab on to the vehicle as it passed them by and climb on. 

These Bowser was more than capable of helping clear, the King periodically pausing his advance to bathe each flank of the vehicle with his firebreath, before rushing to catch up again. The fire torched infectors and combat forms alike when they tried to get onboard, reducing them to burning corpses and then ash in quick succession, leaving a trail of spirits in the wake of the team as they plowed onward and outwards.

There were others behind them, but for the most part, the monsters left in the vehicle’s dust could not keep up with the King or car. Those that did had to face Bowser’s armored and spiked shell, which shrugged off both attempts to strike him and the small arms fire coming from the flood’s ranged forms that had found vantage points and where trying to gun down the retreating Heroes.

While he was mostly safe from direct harm from the foes that could catch him, there was still the threat of being left behind. Even Bowser would be in trouble if left alone with the swarms, especially if some of their bigger, meaner, forms could catch him. Seeming to recognize this, the flood’s combat forms quickly switched from trying to claw or stab him to grabbing hold of him, claws clasping onto his short tail, legs or shell rim in an attempt to slow his retreat with their combined weight. 

[color=FD0000]”GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!”[/color] Bowser roared, shaking violently, tossing some of the hitchhikers asside but being slowed in the process. This brought a moment’s respite, but the flood came at him again, surging forward to ensnare him and drag him down. Unable to afford turning to fight them head on, as this would result in him being left behind anyway, Bowser needed some rear weaponry. Fortunately for him he had just the tool for the job.

Acting quickly, the king hooked a Lucky bell to his spiked color and transformed into Meowser. While now fur covered his body might be more vulnerable than his scaly skin, his shell was just as tough and, importantly, he now sported a long cat tail in place of his stubby normal one.

[color=FD0000]”HOW DO YOU LIKE ME MEOW! I MEAN NOW. HA!”[/color] Bowser yelled back at the flood, swiping his long, heavy, feline tail around like a flail, smashing combat forms aside and crushing infectors to a pulp. 

Stomping forward on three paws, the massive cat King caught back up with the vehicle, just as it looked like they were clearing the worst of the flood. The masses of combat forms were being outrun, and the appearance of regular Zombies, controlled by Blazermate, seemed to indicate that they were getting back out into the regular zombie apocalypse blighted Dead zone. 

This didn’t mean they were home free just yet. The zone had many other dangers (that blasermate couldn’t simply take control over like the zombies) one of which consisted of a swarm of weird bird bat creatures that came in to attack them, biting and dumping toxic gases on them. Bowser swatted at or toasted any that came close, but he wasn’t well equipped to deal with the agile beasts in the slightest, and so had to mostly grin and bear their onslaught and hope that others could handle the situation.

The Flood menace also clearly wasn't done with them as out of the left behind swarm roared three motorcycle riding combat forms, their motorized mounts equipped with two deadly looking side mounted chainsaws. 

As the motorbikes closed in, Bowser inhaled deeply and then turned to let loose a new kind of fireball. Instead of the large or massive slow moving fireballs that the vehicles could easily dodge, Bowser launched dozens of smaller hot shots, which dropped to the floor instantaneously after they left his mouth, before racing across the ground towards their pursuers. To make sure they wouldn't just swerve to the side, he shot the flames in a spread pattern, each fireball sent to the left of the next so that it created a rolling wave of fireballs that he was sure there was no way to dodge. The flames streaked under the leading bike as it failed to react quickly enough to the new threat, igniting both its rider’s legs  and the tires of the vehicle, causing it to lose control and crash to the ground.

[color=FD0000]”YEAH BUZZ OFF”[/color] Bowser roared, certain of his victory right before it was defied by their other two foes. Rather than barrel straight into the flames, the second flood form deftly bunny hopped his over the fire, gaining only light scorches for its troubles, while the third ramped off of a nearby car wreckage, launching themselves briefly skywards and soaring clear over the flames without a scratch as a result before hitting the deck again. The wave rolled onward, the fire fanning out as it spread, leaving gaps that the still pursuing Flood horde could squeeze through, resulting in only some casualties to its seemingly endless bulk.

The king clenched his fist in frustration, but eased up the pressure right before crushing the two spirit's he'd gotten from the confrontation in the ardent tower. Reminded of their presence, he knew what he should do with them.

[color=FD0000]”MORE POWER, LETS GO!”[/color] he decided, before slamming the spirits of the Blastoise and Tentacruel into his chest to absorb their powers as his own. As the transformation took hold he turned and thundered after the Shockdozer while the two remaining slicecycles wheeled around him before coming in too pincer strike the slow moving vehicle, chainsaws roaring and aimed for the more vulnerable tires.