[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=SpringGreen]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,420 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////////// (77/90) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]// (68/70) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/// (67/70) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Edge of the Blue – Bottomless Ocean Feat: Rika [/center] While he’d been first to move, Bowser’s lumbering speed meant that a lot happened before he could get anywhere remotely useful. The nature of shipgirl locomotion meant it felt like standing on a very slow escalator that walking up did nothing to help, something Bowser quickly learned from experience, which was incredibly frustrating. He’d have had to be quick if he’d have wanted to get in on the action, because their team hosted a pair of massive abyssal guns thanks to Bella and now also Geralt, who’s twin fire, aided by some fireballs from Sakura, absolutely wasted the titanic tentacle monster. The beast toppled, and the monster girl it had been fighting pounced on this vulnerability and with hideous strength straight up ripped its eye out. Bowser winced. She had the right idea with going for that weak spot, but she didn't half go overboard with it. Then she hauled the eye up with her tentacle eels and, completely unprovoked, indeed the opposite of provoked considering they’d helped her, hurled it at the Atomos. [hr] The giant eye flew forth, dripping viscera as it soared towards the Atomos. There wasn't time to dodge (not that the ship could really do that anyway). There was only time to brace for impact. A panicked part of Kamek’s brain wanted him to try and teleport away, but, well, there were two children on board along with his elderly self, so that instinct was immediately quashed. As he watched in adrenaline fueled slow motion, Jr made a grab for Mimi, who had been sitting on the control board by the window like a bobble head, (Tyrant was safely huddled under the control panel, where they’d been cowering since the shooting started) and then tried to shield both her and himself with his arms, only for to be grabbed from his seat by a purple hued claw and pulled behind a spiky shell, [color=SpringGreen]”Dad?”[/color] and finding himself hugged close to a string next to the hat wearing kid as the mass of flesh hit home. The front window of the ship shattered all at once, hailing the insides of the cabin with a shower of glass shards. Yet the children were shielded by the hardy shell of the shadow Bowser who had been summoned by Kamek and instantly grabbed both kids to protect them. The same could not be said of the mage himself. Having used the moments he had to keep the kids safe all he could do for himself was close his eyes and make a futile attempt to shield himself with his old limbs. Yet no death by a thousand cuts came. Kamek opened his eyes again, and found the End standing before him, blood leaking from an approvingly smiling mouth for just a moment before he dissipated again and the field of glass that had embedded itself in the elderly striker’s back dropped harmlessly to the floor. There was a brief moment of calm as everyone caught their breath and their senses, interrupted a heartbeat later when half a dozen alarms started blaring. [color=SpringGreen]”Arg my ship!”[/color] Jr cried out. He pushed himself away form the hat kid and out of the grip of the shadow Bowser (who dissipated a moment later when Kamek slumped in his seat, overcome by both the stress and magical exertion) and rushed to the controls of the vessel, emitting little [color=SpringGreen]”ows”[/color] as his bare scaly feet crunched over the ruins of the windscreen. He jumped into the chair, winced, and then grabbed the controls of the ship and hauled on them to try and right themselves. [color=SpringGreen]”nonono come on”[/color] he shouted at it as they continued to list to the side, before pulling out the necro-smasher and whacking the control panel a few times,then looking at its readouts and then turning, first to Kamek and then, once it was clear that the old mage was out of it, to the hat kid. [color=SpringGreen]”You. What’s your name. Why don't I know your name. Take this”[/color] he tossed her the wooden mallet [color=SpringGreen]”and go fix the right engine before we tip over!”[/color] before turning back to the controls and fighting to keep them airborne. [hr] [color=FD0000]”JUNIOR!”[/color] The king cried out in horror as the ship holding his entire family got smashed into by the massive flying eyeball. The mass of ripped out flesh fell to the sea with a titanic splash, leaving the front of the ship buckled and bent and the window above shattered with no son of his in sight. Then after what felt like an age the prince appeared at the wheel again and started yelling at those within to help him and the king let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. They were ok. But they also weren't out of the woods yet. The impact had jolted one of the engines at the back in a way it hadn't liked and it was smoking as the airship slowly sunk to one side. Bowser was sure his son could handle it however, and instead he turned his attention back to the person who had attacked his kin. [color=FD0000]”HEY NO WE’RE TRYING TO HELP!”[/color] Bowser yelled at the monster girl, but it was too late, the hounds had been unleashed while the little girl sat safely in the distance and laughed at them with childish glee as her minions assailed them and the predators of the sea went into a frenzy all around them. To the king that would be endearing if he weren't on the receiving end. “Princ- Bella!” Rika cried out in alarm as her commander turned friend was grabbed by one of the great eels while trying to duel another. “let her go!” she yelled as the woman was hauled into the air and without hesitation, charged the fish alongside Sakura. Instinctively she took up an escort position, sailing almost back to back with the street fighter (though leaving her enough space to do her spins) while using her veritable pile of cannons, oversized rifle, bayonet, explosive slime and hull-blades to down anything trying to stop them from reaching their friend. When the street-fighter reached the eel she leapt up to climb it in order to pry the jaws open to free Bella. Rika swooped around the eel trying, along with Mirage, to keep both the other ladies engaged with it safe while they handled the situation. Using a robot arm mounted hull blade like a cleaver she chopped one of the nasty bitty fish in two when it tried to jump up and bite Sakura, then turned her 6 and 1 cannons on the closest other eel head, showering it with a barrage of shells. Anything else that tried to get involved would meet a similar fate. As the ladies fought the tentacles Bowser finally caught up with them. [color=FD0000]”Running isn't going to cut it! We need to stop her or she’ll just chase us!”[/color] he shouted back a Peach when she demanded they retreat. It wasn't like the ladies had listened when they charged in to help anyway. [color=FD0000]”Without killing her!”[/color] he added, right as an eel head rose up from the water and lunged for him, only for an army of skeletons to appear and wrestle with it for a moment, before tossing it aside, not hurting it but still handling the attack. “Do you ever learn?” Marie the former skullgirl asked him before her striker timer ran out and she vanished again. [color=FD0000]”Yeah! I do! I just. Gah!”[/color] the king smacked his head a few times as if that would help him do so. He needed to think. They needed to hurt, but not kill, the girl. He needed to get close because his only ranged options where the water cannons. He needed to get there first before she became another Marie (the king not registering the fact that Sakura’s infinite mercy had been applied to the giant monster because of his focus on trying to think) But he was so slow. And the water was dangerous he’d get bogged down by fish (indeed one of the snappers tried to bite him only for it to be ensnared in tentacruel tendrils and then eaten alive by a pair of gun barrels for its efforts without the king’s intervention) while trying to get there. So he needed to bypass those too. Go over them. Think think think how could he use what he had let him go faster. Water cannons. Speed. Height. Where had he… [color=FD0000]”Oh!”[/color] the king snapped his fingers and then deployed his octet of arm mounted guns but, instead of pointing them towards their foe and uselessly trying to spray her form well out of range, pointed them backwards. He crouched and then with almighty bounded leaped into the air while, inspired by a certain plumber and a mad scientist’s water sprayer backpack he’d once used, firing the high pressure water cannons backwards as a form of propulsion. Propelled like a water bottle rocket he jumped over a shoal of sharks and then hammered down onto the waves again, a ring of fire shock-waving over the surface of the watery crater his impact formed. Then the sea rushed in to fill the divot his impact had formed and the king used that force to add to his next jump, launching himself towards the tiny terror again with another blast of his water based jetpack. [color=FD0000]”Leave my minions alone kid, or I’ll make you leave them alone!”[/color] He roared at her, trying to hide his already slightly labored breathing, as he approached her rocky domain at a higher speed than he deserved.