[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] 1,857 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (132/90) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////// (57/80) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////// (54/80) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Bottomless Sea – the Maw - the Depths Feat: Rika [/center] Floor 1: Bowser Junior [color=SpringGreen]”That's it! That's it!”[/color] Jr cheered Mimi on as she spun the wheel till at last a heavy thwonk rounded and the wheel would turn no more [color=SpringGreen]”Yesss! You did it! You can stop now.”[/color] Jr told his pokeminion after he was done celebrating, relieving her from her growing frustration with the fact that the wheel had stopped turning. She reeled back her shadow and then wiped her brow/chest, clearly worn out by having to maintain the move for so long. As she settled down to relax, Jr turned the vehicle round and back towards the entrance, only to find the faceless girl racing towards them again. Crying out [color=SpringGreen]”Not again! Where’s the stupid robot!”[/color] Jr tried to back them up and away from her, only to get stuck in the messy contents of the draining room in the process. Mimi, tired from shadow handling the wheel, was too tired to get out another to slash her(but tried to nonetheless) and so, thinking the glass being punched in was inevitable at this point, jr took a deep breath in the vain hope that he might be able to outlast the draining and then squared up to meet her own glass shattering blow with his own aimed for her faceless face. Fortunately the prince wouldn’t need to test his lung capacity. The faceless girl’s aversion to light became clear to Jr where before he’d kinda missed it while shouting at Mimi. She reacted like she was being hit by a wave of fire rather than light, yet despite the obvious pain she was pushed closer and closer and then, after what felt like an eternity, she gave up and bolted into a hole in the floor. Jr let out his held breath in relief and then got Mimi to stop over exerting herself in trying to do another shadow sneak. All that was left then, was to sit back, relax, and wait to see if their actions had born fruit. It certainly sounded like it, some ancient machinery gurgling away out there but it was only when the water started draining out of the room and then finally dunked the sub to the ground that they actually knew it had worked. [color=SpringGreen]”Well, that could have been worse”[/color] Jr said, as he popped open the hatch of the sub, taking a breath of slightly fresher air. Then he scooped up Mimi and the weird key he hadn’t had to use, jumped down into the foot deep water, shivered about being in foot deep water (but at least unlike everyone else he didn't have clothes or shoes to get waterlogged) then took a sloshing walk through the tunnel he’d been in and over to the Bull [color=SpringGreen]”Good job up there. Didn't even have to worry about mr fish breath”[/color] he said to it’s camera, giving a thumbs up to the battered thing’s camera. There was no response. [color=SpringGreen]”Maybe they’ve set off already?”[/color] he said to Mimi, getting a shrug in return. [color=SpringGreen]”Well whatever, let's just get moving. Got a bunch more climbing up too do I think. Urg.”[/color] Jr was not looking forward to that, but the faster he moved, the sooner they’d be able to get out and eat something. Hunger and horror were, he was finding, just the worst combination of feelings. Unfortunately, as he stepped out into the pit, getting out of it was not going to be so easy as strolling along the bottom of the tank and finding a ladder or staircase up to the second floor. There were masses of junk littering the floor of the chamber for one, and for two there was at least one big bad beast roaming around the water logged scrap heap. [color=SpringGreen]”Aw come on, he can breathe air?”[/color] Jr complained as he heard the big fish lamenting the loss of his water. He took a few moments to look around for a path through the junk fields, before realizing something: The big fish probably knew where the drain control was and if he did, then he also knew exactly where the person responsible for stealing his water was. [color=SpringGreen]”Time to move! But uh, quietly. Got it Mimi?”[/color] Jr said to his minion, getting a nod, before he carefully moved out into the junk, taking a slightly circuitous route to avoid running into the fish if he was indeed coming for him while also looking for a way out of the pit he was in. [hr] Floor 3: Kamek [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Or it could eat your brains”[/color] Kamek said, waited for a few moments to see if anything went hideously wrong with Link’s new head piece and then, when it didn't, shrugged [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Looks like you're safe.”[/color] He put away the uninformative document he had been reading, which had been a recording of a private conversation that had been delightful scandalous but entirely useless to him, and watched with interest as Link tried to fill the mold with the black goopy contents of one of the containers. It was a smart move, he had to admit, but unfortunately the logic that you;d keep mold filler with mold turned out to be a false hypothesis. The goo formed into an awful looking little organic thing who’s flashing lights Kamek had to force himself to look away from despite how disgusting it was. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well that is deeply unpleasant.”[/color] he noted. Still, at least Link had picked the most useless (in Kamek’s opinion) mold to try out, so it wasn't the worst outcome. Anyone who knew anything could tell you that the key one could probably be important to them getting out of here, so the Koopa resolved to hold onto its smaller mold for the moment. A bit later Link rushed outside when another awful clanging sound resounded from out there. Kamek had basically gotten used to those at this point, it would likely be more concerning if they stopped, and so only ambled out a few moments later to find the water draining away around them. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well I’m not sure what they did, but it looks like the way is clear”[/color] Kamek noted pleasantly, before the big fish made it known that it didn't have the common decency to drown in the air like some of the other things down there where doing. Or where hopefully doing. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Ah, well. Almost clear.”[/color] That was not going to be fun. He scratched his head a bit, looking around to see if there was a way they’d be able to start getting down. [color=FD0000]”You two good down there?”[/color] came a shout from Bowser, who had been in the middle of climbing back to the command center when the water started going down and he’d stopped to watch it go. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Quite alright sire. Yourself?”[/color] Kamek replied [color=FD0000]”Yeah I’m good, just risking my butt up here while you sit on yours down there”[/color] [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Sire... Well I haven't been completely idle!. I’ve found. Some strange goop? And some…. Junk. and this model of a key? I mean, we don't have a way to fill it, but it's something”[/color] Kamek waved the mold Link had found up at the king, who squinted down at it. [color=FD0000]”A key mold huh?”[/color] the king scratched his chin before shouting up to the two grate climbers [color=FD0000]”Hey wasn't there some kind of machine for those up there?”[/color] If/when he got some confirmation, he shouted down [color=FD0000]”Wait right there, I’m coming to get that mold from ya”[/color] [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I’m not going anywhere sire. But couldn't Link just bring it up?”[/color] Kamek called back [color=FD0000]”Nah. Hey, Link. nice doge earlier. Now go see if you can get downwards and help Jr out with old fish face.”[/color] Bowser said as he started coming down, taking him away from the panicked situation he was unaware was unfolding in the command center. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Wait, the young master is down there?!”[/color] [color=FD0000]”Yeah he got the water down like a champ!”[/color] Kamek squinted down at the pit of trash, then over at the map to work out where flow control was, then down at that before finally spotting Jr. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”There he is!”[/color] he called out cheerily, pointing and then waving till he got a wave back from the speck that was Jr. Followed a few moments later by an arm crossing wave signaling no before the prince raced out of sight at a faster pace than he had been taking when Kamek had spotted him. [hr] Floor 1: Bowser junior [color=SpringGreen]”Stupid stupid stupid old koopa”[/color] Jr whisper shouted as he hurriedly moved to reposition away from the spot he had been at when Kamek pointed him out for anyone who was paying attention to see. [color=SpringGreen]”If we don’t die I’m gonna kill him when we get up there up ”[/color] [hr] Floor 4: Rika Despite being assisted by her anti-gravity gauntlets in the lifting, throwing might have been a bit too generous to describe what Rika had done with the tv. A lob or toss or heave might have been more accurate, so she only really hit because the thing started stomping its way right towards her as soon as she made a noise. Which was incredibly frightening and prompted her to run the heck away as soon as she’d hucked the tv at it. It stomped after her, a hulking disgusting mass that caused her to forget she was basically the only person in here who was armed. Instead she booked it, only for Geralt to save her butt with a shattering glass jar that distracted it away from her. It was only after it rammed Peach and Bella did the same trick to save her that Rika got control of her brain and worked out how it was going on. It responded to sound and almost nothing else. Rika, having run in basically a straight line found herself hiding behind the controls to the submarine crane and, as a result, basically as far from escape as she could possibly be. She briefly considered trying to ride down on the now lowering water, but was that water really any safer? Plus, she couldn’t abandon her friends like that. What she could do to help came to her when Mirage, who was as deceptive a child as he was an adult apparently, tried to use his pop gun to rattle the fence in the center of the room around the submarine pit to get its attention there again (but sans a Peach to ram this time). Awkwardly twisting her arm to get her hand out of her gauntlet, something she’d always had to do to hold stuff now that they were bottled back in place, but which was now dangerous rather than an inconvenience she scraped the gauntlet against the metal console as she grabbed the controls of the crane. As soon as she had a grip started to wiggle them, intending to add a bunch of ongoing mechanical noise inside the cage to distract the thing. Or at least hopefully smother other sounds they made. Maybe if it got inside she could even grab it or knock it into the hole? But that was a longshot.