[center] [img]https://i.postimg.cc/Zn05qZPF/Jiggy-Final.png[/img] [color=fed428]Level:[/color] 6 (7 -> 8/60) [color=fed428]Location:[/color] Dead Zone - Argent Tower -> Sundered Avenue -> Hell-bent City [color=fed428]Word Count:[/color] 701 (+1 EXP) [color=fed428]Power:[/color] [i]Pending…[/i] [color=59e6ff]Blue Eggs:[/color] 100 -> 62 -> 39/100 [color=e01410]Red Feathers:[/color] 50 -> 44/50 [/center] The going away from the tower was hardly the fastest, but at least now they were making their getaway. With a vehicularly inexperienced mechanoid at the wheel, however, coupled with the resistance they would no doubt meet along the way, the diminished pace didn’t the going any easier. The duo maintaining their balance atop an armored vehicle with a mounted weapon meant having to hang onto it with every other turn (even the most shallow) while making sure to avoid it every time it fired, on top of repelling the share of Flood that got past it between charges. For what it was worth, they were decently suited to the task in one way that no one else was. While they were unaware of the specific threat posed by the smaller, skittering Flood forms, their perpetual back-to-back positioning conveniently ensured that none of them would find purchase on the back of either of their necks. By sheer quantity there was no stopping a small, but appreciable number of the Flood jumping or crawling aboard the dozer in waves, those that managed to not be splattered under its tires or against its front bumper. It fell to the duo (and whoever else) to fix that from the roof. They began by spitting off a few repelling shots at the bounding combat forms until too many were aboard to keep shooting at, whereupon they resorted to Beak Bayonet for close range, then Breegull Bash shortly thereafter before stowing Kazooie to cover Banjo’s back. They didn’t have too much difficulty fighting them aside from their numbers, the first of which were cleared by the turret, manned by an inexperienced driver who couldn’t see them. After [i]that[/i] close call enemies began piling on again, but sharp beak and heavy paw seemed to suffice for another round more, with a [url=https://www.ssbwiki.com/images/c/ca/Banjo%26KazooieDSmash.gif]wing stomp[/url] to clear the crawler buildup. Soon, Banjo found himself having to hold his face shut after getting his first whiff of poisonous gas sourced from a flock of flying creatures that, while not allied with the Flood, still saw fit to harass them. Upon spotting them himself, and dodging a swooping bite from one of them, Banjo threw the turret arm at the nearest of them to swat them down. The weapon happened to be discharged at that moment to take out more mid-swing, and those that were still up and on them, the duo took care of with some parting egg fire. While they managed to eventually break through and leave behind the greater mass of the Flood, they had not yet freed themselves of peril. For one obstacle, they traded another, as the terrain became their new enemy. Thankfully, by the time the path fractured, dropped, and made traversal and balance maintenance harder for those to whom it mattered, Jak and Daxter, the best drivers in the party, booted the Medabot from the driver’s seat and took the wheel from her, straightening out the difficulty curve somewhat. It didn’t entirely solve the problem of the Flood bomber dropping organic mines on the road ahead of them, however, boding near ill when the dozer finally hit one close to the upcoming gap. Suddenly, before anyone else had a chance to see to it themselves, a cloaked, phantasmal figure flew in unexpectedly, and from out of nowhere, to cleave the bomber down, clearing the jump for them. Banjo hunkered down in preparation for the ramp. Whether the dozer cleared the gap or not, him and Kazooie decided to get off here. Just as the tires left the pavement, Kazooie sprang forward from a green platform, landing back atop the dozer at its apex in tandem arcs. Where she had left a green platform, she landed back on a blue and red one. Once they took to the air, they planned to stay there, at least for as long as they could or had to. They were silently thanking themselves for their good decision when the ground on the other side showed the first signs of giving way. In suit with the rest, the pair climbed in altitude and continued making their way for the remaining Qliphoth root, whether it meant following the group or leading them. [hr] [center] [img]https://i.postimg.cc/L5r26P82/Star-Fox-Final.png[/img] [color=5edaf6]Level:[/color] 4 (32 -> 33/40) [color=5edaf6]Location:[/color] Sandswept Sky - Shadow of Vah Naboris [color=5edaf6]Word Count:[/color] 392 (+1 EXP) [/center] To say the least, the party didn’t disperse their forces in quite the way he had hoped they would. When prompting the flyers to fan out and issuing the command to target the Beast’s feet, he didn’t expect or intend for them to fly straight to its interior while leaving the feet to them. In fact, he had counted on Poppi, boasting the heaviest artillery among them, to chip in on that front, and as for the Courier, it was impossible to tell where he was at on his end without being able to see or hear from him. There was no telling for him if this resulted from an error in communication or just everyone having their own ideas how they could best contribute, but there was no means of or sense in arguing it now. Besides, this was more [i]his[/i] area than anyone else’s, even if he was presently under-equipped for it individually, and he wasn’t one to command anything of others that he wouldn’t do himself if he could. [color=5edaf6]“Be ready,”[/color] he called out after knocking on the van’s interior wall to alert both the van and the driver, [color=5edaf6]“I’ll need you to pick me up.”[/color] It was hard to tell between Skull and Morgana who was really in control, so he made his request out loud nonspecifically to whichever one of them could better fulfill it. With the back wide open, while Primrose bolted one foot, Fox was free to take the other opposite. He took a calculated, deliberate fall out of the opening to line up with his target, and before hitting the sand, he dashed straight for its foot, stopping dead on top of it with an explosive report. He found out quickly as the foot lifted up just how poor a foothold it made for. He slid down from the ankle of the rising hoof, kicking off of it, air dashing in reverse to hit it with another explosion before it got too far away from him, and caught himself against the ground in a recovery roll. He couldn’t afford to linger in the open for long, so he made haste in moving to intercept the van on its return trip. If he could manage, he would try to get off one more Burst to hit one of the other feet on his way back.