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[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=SpringGreen]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,535  (+3)
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]/////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////  (48/90)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////// (40/70)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////// (38/70)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Edge of the Blue – Seaward Bay
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Twin flashes of light lit up the bay for a final time as Rika and Bowser transformed and both, functionally, became a massive pile of guns. Rika gained a set of robot arms with mounted turrets on the joints and axe blades at the ends. It also mucked around with her outfit some more, and, somewhat important, completely de-abysallised one of the arms, converting her rapid fire gun gauntlet into one armed with an an assault rifle styled after the Brachydios’ head and, as a result, lacking the horrible human teeth the other one still had.

She pulled back her arm, cocking the new assault rifle and primed the new cannons before turning to face the harbor Demon. 

Right in time for the giant monster to be cleaved in half by Ace Cadet, leaving her in the lurch. What was she supposed to do with her anger now?

[color=FD0000]”Oh hey, they got her. NICE JOB TROOPS!”[/color] Bowser yelled encouragingly over at them, right before Carrie’s timer ran down and he got dumped down onto the water, down from which some nondescript exclamations of how cool water walking was came.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh thank the stars that’s over[/color] Kamek added had slumped down to rest. The last of his energy expended and went along with his various shadow clones and minions, who all fell to help ensure the final blow could be struck. Unfortunately the troop had forgotten about the Midway princess after her bomber swarm had been handled, but now she returned with vengeful fury. 

It was very much time to leave.

There was the slight issue that Shippy was currently a. Distraught and b. was currently lacking any way of moving herself, due to her stern having been vaporized, so even if she had had the willpower to move they weren't going anywhere, necessitating the indigent task of getting out and pushing. 

Peach requested as much from Bowser and Rika.

[color=FD0000]”Sure,”[/color] Bowser replied with a distinct lack of the usual grumpiness he exhibited when asked to do things, scooting around to the back of the craft on his new slim boots. [color=FD0000]”Here, let me”[/color] he offered before pressing a shoulder, and two unfurled turrets, to the back of the ship and beginning to push her forwards with all his might.  

“Here to help” Rika echoed, before doing much the same on the other side of peach, one  gauntlet and the flats of her new hull-blades being used to shove them forwards. Together with Sakura and the princess they all pushed the living boat towards the inlet that had been their goal this entire time, something that had been hard to remember in all the chaos. The only real disturbance during the trip there was when Bowser’s mini turrets went off for the first time, the quadrants of micro turrets automatically aiming and lighting up in-order pepper a few abyssal fighters that had gotten close with their miniature shells, which spooked the living daylights out of him and Rika before they realized what was happening. 

The inlet itself was guarded by a few meager defenses that paled in comparison to what they’d had to deal with to get there, though Kamek noted that the fact that they, again, had some distinctly non-abyssal allies as a mild cause for concern. Especially the fact that the kappa creatures could probably follow them onto land if they went there. Not that these specific baddies were much of an issue. While the mage was out of it and a lot of the team were on pushing duty the Atomos had fared far better than Shippy after it had charged the big bird, and so swooped down and ahead to spare the vessel any more pain while its remaining passengers pelted them with firepower.

With that final obstacle cleared, and with Shippy’s motor back up and running thanks to the infinitely useful Blazermate they were finally free of the warzone, though the sound of it still haunted them from afar for some time as they sailed up into a comparative paradise. 

The Atomos flew low and next to the now much smaller Shippy, letting people get onboard to find somewhere to rest where they wouldn’t overburden her. While Bowser and Kamek went back aboard to reunite with Junior, Rika ended up staying on Shippy with Sakura. The woman said the battle must have been awful for Rika, but the former Abyssal felt it had hit her friend harder than her as she sat down next to her, decoupling her gauntlets and laid them to one side while the new Azure Navy parts neatly folded out of the way so she could be close without being a nuisance.

“I’ve been in those battles before. Its all I knew till I met you... but it hits different now that I know-” her voice hitched for a moment and then she forced herself to continue “-that I know that no one’s coming back from that”

Not the Azure girls she’d killed before she knew what it meant, nor the ones who’d died minutes ago and especially not the one that was now a part of her. Not the Abyssals that could have been like her or Bella. 

Not Brinybeard. She’d only kind of known him for a few hours, and yet it still hurt. She’d never lost anything before.

“But I’ve been asking myself if he’d still been alive if I hadn’t held back. If I’d been willing to hurt the ones who were developed enough that they could be like me, maybe he. Maybe.” she couldn't finish the sentence, too emotionally drained by the entire ordeal to really try and process complicated topics like that.

So instead she leaned lightly against Sakura to just kind of be there for/with her. It was the best she could think of. No one had ever taught her how to comfort people, let alone work on her own issues. As a result Sakura working though her own trauma out loud helped. A lot.

As did the view. Maybe she’d seen it before she’d been her, everything from back then was getting hazy as she became more and more her own woman, but even if she had this was the first time she really saw the alien woods for what they were.

The serene quiet beauty of it all could almost let a person forget about what they had just been through, pretend it had all been a nightmare, if only for a little while. So Rika did just that. No thoughts. No words.  Just… taking it all in for real this time. She missed the talk of cats as a result.

Her zoned out trance was rudely interrupted by someone yelling helpful if vague warnings at the group. The horned ship girl poked her head over the railing to see what all the fuss was about and found a bearded man clad in bright yellow shouting warnings about... Another living boat? With a kid. Also hot water crystals. She didn't get it.

[color=FD0000]”UUURG. WHAT’S ALL THE YELLING ABOUT?”[/color]  came a groggy roaring complaint from the Atomos. The shoving of the ship had taken a bit more out of the king than he had expected due to his modifications and, as he had experienced a grand total of 0 trauma from the whole ordeal, had seemingly decided to take a nap from which he had just been woken.

There was a pause during which someone filled the King was filled in on what had been yelled

[color=FD0000]”JOY”[/color] was his response to the descriptions of the threats up ahead. After a few moments the king appeared on the back of the ship and called out [color=FD0000]”Ok. You. wait there,”[/color] he told the figure before more generally telling everyone that [color=FD0000]”We are going to stop and get some actual rest before we deal with anymore… anything. Ok?”[/color] and finally telling Jr [color=FD0000]”Set us down son, and then take a load off you’ve done more than enough”[/color] 

There was some weak instance that he could keep going, but ultimately Jr had been at the wheel while they all recovered and he (along with Shippy, Rika guiltily realized as Link had the same idea as the King) needed some time to recover as well. 

After a few moments the airship hoovered over to the bank of the river, found a flat stable looking spot and set down among the pink grass, giving its pilot a chance to take a nap and its passengers a chance to either get a brief bit of shore leave or to greet/interrogate the man in yellow.

Bowser stomped off the ship, an odd sight for sure to the human. The now thinner and lankier turtle dragon, who was wearing clothes again consisting of knee high black boots, a long army jacket and  gloves (a getup which had a distinct lack of trousers/pants), stepped out of the ship’s hold and went to see if the stranger in yellow had followed his instruction or if he had run off. 

[color=FD0000]”Hey. King Bowser. Who are you, and what's this about a living ship?”[/color] he asked as he approached casually, the king assuming, perhaps foolishly, that the things being in a lake, something they were not in yet, meant whatever it was would politely stay where it was and thus this whole situation was not urgent. 

[hr]


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[b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 535 (+1) 
[b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 4[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]//////////////////////////////[/color]////////// (30/40)
[b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] Sandswept Sky - Sweet Canyon - Parnasse
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Midna had thought the Flygon’s storm had been bad, but this? This was on a whole other level. From the safety of her shadowy hiding spot Midna was forced to watch in horror as the others where relentlessly buffeted by the storm that she’d underestimate as it tried to rip them out of the train and hurl them into the pit, unable to step out and help because if she did she’d appear in mid air, and her small and light form would be easily tossed to the winds.

She really wished she could control sand and not just her own realm’s right now but she convinced herself that they’d be fine. She never saw anyone in trouble, though it was impossible to see much of anything, and so sat tight rather than put herself, and potentially the others if they were forced to try and save her, at risk.

Eventually, after what seemed like an age, it was over. The train escaped the storm and eventually came to a stop, at which point the princess sheepishly rejoined the team, visibly unmarred by the sand. She felt guilty enough about that, but when it turned out that four of them had been lost (and wasn’t humorously tragic that it might be the wind of all things that had dealt their party it’s first blow) the survivor's guilt really hit home. 

Tora suggested several ways that they might have survived, which all had varying degrees of wishful thinking. If they were alive, there was the question of whether they had the time to spare. Their quest itself wasn’t time sensitive, as far as they knew,  but their time out here, under the relentless sun, certainly was. 

For their resident samurai, there was no question. He quickly laid out a plan to search for them, though she had to note that [i]he[/i] was in the group that wouldn't be trekking through the desert and risking the sand storms again.

Minda shook her head and mentally dumped that line of thought. Now was not the time for petty things like that. It was time for action. His reason as to why he wasn’t suited to do the exploring did make sense and she owed those lost to the storm the help she hadn't been able to give during it. Indeed, to an extent she owed the Heavy and the Medic her life. She wasn't leaving them behind.

[color=Aquamarine]”I’ll do it,”[/color] she said, not so subtly making Minamoto’s plan one based on volunteering rather than something he was implicitly ordering them to do by her choice of words [color=Aquamarine]”but we need to make sure that anyone who goes out won't just become another victim to the storm or the desert. So if you're not 100% sure that you’ll be safe out there, you shouldn't be going”[/color]

[color=Aquamarine]”If we’re going to stay out here for a while looking, we’ll need supplies. Do we have anything left food and water wise?”[/color] she asked the Thieves [color=Aquamarine]”and how possible would it be to get some from the city and bring then back here? Time frame and cost wise?”[/color] she asked Gnorbu who was the only one who knew anything about the city in question