[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] 1,780 (+3)
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (93/90)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (19/80)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 7 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]/////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(17/80)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Bottomless Sea – the Maw - the toy dump
Feat: Rika
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[color=SpringGreen]”Gottcha!”[/color] Jr assured Rika as he grabbed her gauntleted arm and then pulled her up onto the upper ledge of the toy dump and prevented her from falling back down the tower of blocks they’d ascended either back onto Bowser or, worse, into the ball-pit sea in which the unidentified danger that they’d been warned about surely lurked.

“Thanks” the ship-girl gasped, before sinking to her knees under the weight of her gauntlets “are we nearly there?”

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Perhaps about half way”[/color] Kamek suggested from where he was sitting with jr’s pet pig and ghost, all of whom had already been tossed up, which got a sorrowful frustrated sound of Rika as she slumped to the ground. There had been two many close calls which made feeling like a burden twice as bad for her.

[color=FD0000]”Chin up and lets keep moving”[/color] Bowser, who had jumped/scrambled up the side of the block stack in relatively short order. Told her [color=FD0000]”The sooner we get out of here, the sooner you can get back to wrecking everything with those guns of yours”[/color] which was meant to be motivating but had the exact opposite effect judging from the miserable sounds coming from the ship girl.

[color=FD0000]”Ah, uh”[/color] 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Maybe jr can take a look for something to fix your gauntlets now? We’re making great time compared to everyone else”[/color] Kamek suggested, which got an agreeing nod from Jr. Indeed, Peach's suggestion that they split up had left them all over the place. The troop were well ahead thanks to the two royal’s unnatural strength while the boy who had been a frog (among others) hadn’t even set off yet. 

Just behind the troop were people who had somewhat taken Kamek’s balloon idea and implemented actually feasible versions of it, namly Geralt using Blazermate like a hover pack and Nadia’s fan+sheet parachute was letting them leap across the junk room in great strides. A brief moment of being frustrated about having not been listened to in favor of being tossed about vanished from the former mage’s mind when the flyers attracted unwanted attention. A great hand descended from the darkness above to try and snatch them out of the air, this one blue skinned bear and veiny rather than gloved like the master and crazy hands that had been the first brief assumption of the troop. Nadia was practically swatted from the sky, and only her parachute landing atop her managed to hide her from a follow attack, though she was also left hanging perilously from the top of a tv.

Blazermate and Geralt meanwhile were left completely out in the open, but a moment of quick thinking from Peach bailed them out, throwing an alarm clock into the junk sea, which the hand and its guiding focused upon and then destroyed with untempered fury.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh dear. That is a big one”[/color] Kamek said, from where he and the rest of the troop were looking out from behind a series of alphabet blocks, when they got their brief look at the titan hanging above the room.

[color=FD0000]”Shoudlda let me roast it”[/color] Bowser complained at being pulled behind the blocks to take cover rather than being allowed to lob fireballs at the hand, though he was saying that mostly out of bravado. Even he could recognize that trying to pick a fight with the titan would likely end poorly.

[color=SpringGreen]”Maybe we can make a trap or something for the hands?”[/color] Jr suggested [color=SpringGreen]”lure it down and then...”[/color] what exactly they’d be able to do to it even if they caught it was the real issue with that plan. That and the [i]other hand[/i] it had that likely wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”We can keep that in mind, but it might be best to not be spotted at all. If the lady of the hours, or the ship rather, thinks she’s gotten rid of us by dumping us down here, then let's keep it that way, yes?”[/color] Kamek suggested

[color=FD0000]”Pretty classic mistake if she has”[/color] Bowser noted. [color=FD0000]”Let keep moving so we can teach her a lesson in how you properly dispose of your enamies”[/color]

“Ah, sorry, but what about the power thing? So I can be helpful again?” Rika interjected, reminding them of the plan they’d been hatching before the titan rudely interrupted them, prompting them to re- initiate the plan to try and power up Rika’s gauntlets so they could help her rather than hindering her like they were now.

The area they’d come to, the toy dump, proved to be a bit more traversable than the more bedroom-y section of the chamber. The long platforms, pipes and occasional bridges meant that there was a lot less tossing involved in the traversal, leaving the group time to hunt around the myriad of giant toys scattered around, which provided both opportunity for salvage and good hiding spots in which to cower away from the room’s supervisor cyclopean gaze. Of course, it being conveniently full of bits, bobs and hiding spots meant that it was one of the preferable places to be for people other than them too. The troops eyes were on the one and the sky and looking out for something to help Rika, so even by the time Jr had spotted an old upturned rc car they still hadn’t spotted their triangular headed observers.

[color=SpringGreen]”Ah ha! That looks perfect!”[/color] jr cheered upon spotting an upturned RC car, racing across a giant ruler acting as a bridge with Mimi and Kamek (who was not having a good time) on his shoulders, followed closely by tyrant and more carefully by Bowser who was carrying Rika

[color=SpringGreen]”What? Seriously”[/color] Jr was complaining when they caught up, prompting Rika to ask “oh, is it no good?” only to be waved round to see that the toy car was stylized after a [url=https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71FlHr2SQ3L._AC_SL1500_.jpg]certain plumber.[/url]

“I don’t understand. Is it because he looks a bit like that L person?” Rika asked, having never seen the man sculpted in plastic before her.

[color=SpringGreen]”Huh? Doesn't look anything like Mr L what are you talking about? No, it's Mario, dad’s arch nemesis!”[/color] Jr replied, a touch affronted that she did not know this thing she had no way of knowing.

[color=FD0000]”Didn’t know they guy did mech though. Weird. But hey, that just means we get to hack him up while we get the parts right Jr”[/color] the king said, slapping his son on the shoulder, which Kamek had vacated the moment they’d stopped moving.

Hack apart they did, with the help of claw, dexterous spooky arms and a little fire when the eye was for from them the car was rapidly dismantled, its guts spilling out and revealing a treasure trove of wires and, most importantly, a set of still partially charged batteries, with which meant jr could get to work on helping Rika out.

While they did Kamek picked his way through the stacks of blocks and toys, aiming to spy on how the others were doing, Tyrant trotting along at his heels, the baby behemoth having grown rapidly bored of the tinkering of his trainer. The swine ran too and fro, sniffing at this and nuzzling this and that while the tiny turtle trundled along towards the edge of the tower in the toy dump they were on and took a peek through a set of blocks roughly piled up into the shape of a makeshift castle.

A quick peek showed things not going so well for the others, the eye still roaming the area they were stuck in back in the trash filled bedroom section of the room. He really hoped the fact that he couldn't immediately spot anyone who’d been under attack just meant they were doing a good job at hiding. The once and future wizard was wondering if they had any way to distract the ting without getting stuck in the exact same situation when a small clunking sound, as if some had accidentally kicked a block, sounded near them. 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Hmm? Are you done already? Or was that you Tyrant?”[/color] Kamek asked, turning but finding the royals and the ship girl still busying away, while Tyrant was standing stock still, their ears up and alert. That. Was not a good sign. 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Peach? Frog? Mr L? Is that any of you?”[/color] He asked instead.

No response. Then, now that he was listening closely, Kamek thought he heard a brief shuffle of footsteps worryingly nearby, that was silenced almost as soon as it began.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Hello? Is someone there?”[/color] again, nothing 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I’m friendly. But if you aren't, I warn you I'm a mage of high renown… also I have a pig with veeeery sharp horns”[/color] the former mage said, while carefully backing out of the little block fort they’d been using as a combination of viewing and hiding spot, before racing across the top o the block tower as fast as he could, which wasn't fast, with Tyrant dashing ahead of him back to the safety of his trainer.

As he approached the rest of the troop, it looked like they were just finishing up. Wires, strips of plastic and rubber from the cars wheel had all been ripped from the toy by claw and tooth and forged together with fire-breath to form a backpack holding a pair of batteries about as large as the ship-girl’s torso, which seemed like it was the opposite of a solution to her problem till you took into account the wires leading from them into where each of the gauntlets connected to her back. Hasty soldering and insulation jobs prevented the threat of death by electrocution for the most part and now, it seemed, was the moment of proof.

“Ok, here goes!” Rika announced as she flicked a pair of switches on her gauntlets and then, with some hesitation, stood up with only a little difficulty.

“Ah. yes. yes yes yes, it worked!” She cheered with forced quiet, before stumbling slightly due to the weight on her back now, before stabilizing herself by using the fully powered up gauntlets (that had been lead weights before) to support herself in the air, leaning her weight on them as they floated . “Wow. ok. Still a bit unsteady buuut I think I can do this!”

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”That’s good, because I don't think we’re alone up here”[/color] Kamek announced as he rejoined them, which got a mostly confident nod from Rika and the question of [color=FD0000]”Did some of the others catch… or, right, you mean more monsters”[/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Quite possibly”[/color]

“Then let's go!” Rika announced, setting off a touch unsteadily but rapidly getting the hang of balancing on her gauntlets again, leaving the troop to follow in her wake.