[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 6,267 (+7) 
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 10 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (175/110)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 5 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////// (36/50)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Sea of Serendipity
[/center]

While it might have cost Kamek a great deal of energy, there was no denying that Blazermate and Susie’s hanging back and wheeling and dealing with the undead pirate king had paid off. No more flying, surfing or whale back riding for the troop no sir, from here to Twilight town it was going to be smooth sailing on the back of the fully crewed pirate ship.

Well that was the hope as the Troop settled down on deck to rest. Said hope then proceeded to be dashed in about the time it got them to get comfortable.

It all started with a cry none had expected to hear out here to the east, and yet, here they were again, Abyssals. A swarm of their fliers appeared out of the blue and without provocation, swooping in to deliver a bombing run.

[color=Aqua]”No no no! Turn back! I’m your boss or something so shoo!”[/color] Rika the resident Abyssal jujmped to her feet to shouted up at the bombers flying in, but it was no use. They had other masters, ones that had fallen into the wrong crowd (though it could be argued that Rika’s specific turtle villain crowd weren't the best either).

Said turtle based crowd’s where blasted into action by the, well, blasts rocking the ship: Bowser hunkered down in his shell and returned sporadic fire with the cannons atop it, Jr ran for the cover of his car and leapt head first into it before taking it off and Kamek… well she was still exhausted from using her magic for pirate ship transport, so she mostly just hobbled for the cover of the brig. 

The gang would not be getting any mage support this time round.

They’d have to take the boat he had helped acquire as compensation, the boat that had a single cannon on it that Jr had salvaged to return fire with. Against them, as it turned out, was an airship, a giant snail (also an airship), a cannon platform and an unknown number of enemies in the water, all arrayed in a mighty fine ambush despite the lack of any kind of cohesion in their aesthetic other than being kinda piraty and nautically. Had he had brain cells, Bowser might have found this a bit odd, but as he had at most two rattling around there and so his response to this, after the bombers had done their first run, had been to stomp up to the prow of the ship, plant a foot on the bowsprit and bellow:

[color=FD0000]”I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BUT I KNOW WHO I AM, AND THAT’S THE ADMIRAL OF AWESOME, THE BARON OF BAD ATTITUDE AND THE ONE AND ONLY KOOPA KING WHO IS GOING TO BE ALL YOUR DOOM! FLEE BEFORE BOWSER YOU SCHMUCKS, BEFORE I RIP UP YOUR LAME AIRSHIPS AND STOMP EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU INTO THE OCEAN FLOOR!”[/color] 

While he was trying to intimidate them, their enemies were busy raining hell down on them from afar, and, worse, up close.

[color=Aqua]”Bowser! Torpedoes!”[/color] Rika cried out as the explosive tubes hammered the underside of the ship from some unseen foes, giving the poor ship ensconced Kamek quite the bout of seasickness on top of putting her life in danger.

[color=FD0000]”Oh, that’s brave. Getting up close. Well then let’s see how you like it!”[/color] the king said as turned his gaze to the waters, and then joined in with what Rika was already doing: returning fire with torpedoes of their own.

The ship girl had hopped overboard and was dropping off twin pairs of torpedoes from the undersized of her gauntlets which she sent wheezing towards where she thought the enemy subs were. 

When Bowser got in on the action he had no such finesse. He retracted into his shell and started spinning, firing off a hail of fury spikes straight up into the air, which then arched end over end and fell down and hit the waters, where the propellers on their rears bit into the wet and pushed them down down into the blue to explode like depth charges vaguely around where the unseen shipgirls where.

As for the whale fellow hooking away at the ship, well, he was about to meet one of his kin, as Rika’s white whale, now free of acting as a transport for king or cannon, dived down under the water, ready to meet biting jaw with biting jaw, and anchor flail with anchor tail. 

Down below, the arrival of torpedoes in their underwater battleground prompted the Abyssal twins to take notice. “We’ve got incoming,” Elsie, the younger but paradoxically bigger of the two, idly commented, prompting Thumpback to tear himself away from his task of tearing up the Adrian’s underside to look.

“I can see that,” Adie snipped back at her. The older but smaller and more elegantly-dressed of the pair kept her focus on the primary target, pounding away at the pirate ship’s hull with the four emplacements on her massive, heart-shaped arm cannon.

Elsie adjusted her horned sensory visor. The indigo light building within her own cannon’s ‘eye’ died down. “Doesn’t look like they’re really aiming at us, though,” she deadpanned.

“Hence, why I’m not bothered!” Rolling her eyes, Adie double-checked to make sure. Whoever her assailants were, they seemingly hoped to take out the subaqueous threat without getting wet themselves. Sure, Rika’s torpedoes entered the sisters’ vicinity but they weren’t locked on. The fury spikes fell around them like rain, driven by their propellers straight down to the sea floor on all sides, but with three submariners sheltered directly below the Adrian it took only minor adjustments to avoid the explosives. After a few moments, Adie quit firing to restock her ammunition. “There! That oughta be good enough, right El?”

“Keel is approximately seventy-percent destroyed,” her sister reported. “The rudder is disabled, so they’re unable to steer, and the loss of ballast in the bilge increases the risk of listing.” A rain of golden coins from the hold, which together with stones in the bottom of the ship helped keep the whole thing balanced upright, glittered in the fitful light as they fell to the sea floor. “They’re taking on massive amounts of water.”

Adie waved her hand. “Okay, okay, that’s plenty. Ready for the next step, I’m sure.” She narrowed her eyes at Thumpback. “Your turn, blubber brain.”

The whale grumbled, releasing a fount of angry bubbled. “Once this job’s done, we’ll settle things, mark my words.” He twirled his anchor around like a lasso, preparing to hurl it up and into the guts of the Adrian with titanic strength.

It was then that Rika’s nightmarish beluga appeared, plunging down through the water toward the three on or above the sea floor. The sight took Thumpback by surprise, who quit spinning his anchor and grabbed hold of it like an axe. “Hey, heads up!”

“We see it, obviously!” Adie huffed. Without even needing to communicate, both sisters changed targets. Both unleashed a handful of shells from their arm cannons, which not being self-propelled couldn’t change course and would eventually slow down to act as depth charges. They then charged up their weapons, and when the white whale got close enough, they fired twin energy beams -one indigo and one lavender- both to damage the enemy and set off the shells.

The whale, naturally, returned with its own fire, its own twin double barreled turrets unleashing shots as it swerved  to avoid running headlong into their fire, braudsizing them as it circled at a distance where its longer barreled guns had an advantage. Nevertheless, it took some damage, particularly from the range-irrespective beams.

[color=FD0000]”Did we hit anything? Ships not shaking any more”[/color] Bowser asked up above. Around him, the Adrian continued to accumulate withering damage from the cannons on all sides. Even if the barrage was letting up a little due to the others’ efforts, the irreparable damage done to the ship’s hull and innards was threatening its structural integrity.

[color=Aqua]”They’re just shooting up my whale now!”[/color] Rkia replied [color=Aqua]”and no, I don’t think so?”[/color]

It was a shame she hadn’t gotten any depth charges on these things, she was thinking, before she recalled what she did have them. A few button presses later and two little hanger bays snapped open on the side of the gauntlets, launching a pair of [url=https://imgur.com/DepMuNJ] Abyssal Reconnaissance Planes[/url] which shot out over the water, scanning equipment and giving her a better view of what was going down down there.

[color=Aqua]”I think I see, aw no, princesses!”[/color] Rika despaired, having somewhat hoped she wouldn't have to deal with that whole messy aftermath by traveling to the rest of the world. Well if the planes hadn’t sunk that hope the pair down below certainly did.

[color=FD0000]”Well, where are they!”[/color] Bowser wanted to know [color=FD0000]”Because I can’t swim anymore remember!”[/color] 

[color=Aqua]”I.. I.. I.. ah whoreson”[/color] Rika cursed and then committed shouting [color=Aqua]”Follow my lead”[/color] and cocking both guns and torpedoes, spraying with more accurate fire and an actual target lock now on the subsurface princesses. Bowser followed her lead, but not with shells but with sound, sending supersonic waves down into the water to confuse their foes.

Down below, the Abyssals were treating Rika’s beluga roughly. On its own against the three submariners, it lacked speed, maneuverability, armaments beyond its two head-cannons, and worst of all, intelligence. Their cuttlefish torpedoes left chunks missing in its pallid flesh, and when the giant Thumpback hooked its mouth with his enormous anchor and pulled, he left a massive split in the monster’s jaw. Still, the largely one-sided beatdown didn’t give the sisters tunnel vision. Bullets quickly lost speed underwater, but when Rika sent a flurry of far more accurate torpedoes their way, they were forced to use their lasers defensively.

“They have a lock on us,” Elsie pointed out.

“Obviously!”

“Should we relocate?”

Adie scoffed. “No way, we’re sitting pretty down here. It’s just one enemy on the water. See her scooting around up there?” From below, she could see Rika’s every move silhouetted against the light, while the Abyssals blended into the shadows of the deep against the sea floor. “I give ‘em one more person up there blindly chucking stuff down at us, tops. But, ugh, what’s this noise?” She held onto her head, wincing. “Some kind of alarm?”

“Unknown. It’s affecting me, as well.” Elsie expression tightened. “My targeting is deteriorating. I recommend activating your FCS-CIC as a countermeasure.”

“Well, duh! I’m already on it.” With an internal toggle Adie activated her sonar, sending her own pulses of sound through the water. Every solid surface in a massive radius caused the waves to bounce back straight to her, allowing her to image her surroundings perfectly. “Hah, there we go. Feel better already!”

Elsie nodded. “Must be negating the sound somewhat.”

“That’d be why. But…ugh!” Adie expression turned toward disgust. “Hey, big guy. Y’know you have barnacles down there, right?”

Thumpback grunted. “Mind your own business, pipsqueak. Is it go time, or what?”

“Yeah, let’s,” Adie affirmed, dispatching another volley of incoming fire with her laser and torpedoes. “My ASW is best-in-class. Once my sonar’s on, I’m invincible underwater.”

“We’ll cover you,” Elsie added.

Thumpback grunted again, and spun up his anchor. This time he let it loose, and it shot straight up to crash through the wood and lodge in the bowels of the Adrian’s starboard side. Then, using his incredible might, the giant began to pull. Already gutted and filling with water, the ship began to tilt sideways.

Having been already leaning on the edge of the ship, this tip was more than enough to unsteady Bowser, his arm’s going flailing in the open air before he hit the water and sunk like a stone, cheeks puffed up as he held onto the air he had. 

[color=Aqua]”Bowser!”[/color] Rika cried out alarm and, after a quick breath, dove into the water and tried her best to swim after him, calling for her battered whale’s help to save the sinking king.

At least they could see their foes a bit better now, and rather than stay a sitting duck or panic while sinking Bowser moved first to defend himself. Or rather get someone to defend him, the King summoning Marie Korbel, the former, skull girl, to aid him beneath the waves. 

The undead maid took one look about, got the gist of the situation and then unleashed a wave of flying skulls at the ship girls, and a horde of skeletal mariners at the big whale while she herself acted as cover for the king tried and failed to swim

[color=FD0000]”Gaah, this can't be how it ends!”[/color] he raged [color=FD0000]”I'm Bowser,The bad guy, chumpy water doesn't deserve to be the thing that does mne in!”[/color] 

“You do realize your breathing under water just fine right?” Marie, who didn't need to breathe thanks to being dead, pointed out. 

[color=FD0000]”Huh?”[/color] 

[hider=Bowser Level Up]
Sea Life (Tentacruel): Bowser can breathe underwater, and has an innate talent for navigating aquatic environments.
[/hider]

[color=FD0000]”Oh. Sweet!”[/color] was Bowser’s rather understated response to not drowning as he landed on the seafloor. 

Rika, surprised and relieved by this turn of events, turned her focus to fire support, her desperate dive into the drink meaning she was better able to see how her cannon shots were arching under the water, the ship girl using them to supplement her dwindling torpedo supply while racking up the shots towards her All Out Assault.

Taken by surprise but far from helpless, the Abyssal sisters carved a path through the avalanche of bone with their lasers and blew holes in the undead legion with their torpedoes, but that was a [i]lot[/i] of skeletons. The oversaturation of targets taxed Adie’s sonar to the point that she didn’t detect Rika’s own torpedoes until they’d gotten much too close for comfort, at which point her countermeasures got her caught in the blast. “Agh!” she gasped, gritting her teeth. Her arm cannon worked as a shield in a pinch, but it was far from perfect, and if it took too much damage it wouldn’t work as a weapon.

“Adie!” Elsie exclaimed, chomping through an undead sailor with her arm before she swam to her sister’s side. “Are you well?”

“I’m fine,” the Abyssal snapped. “And if you’re about to say something like, that big reptile is coming towards us, save your breath!” Swimming backward, she blasted apart a skeletal horror with her laser, then singled out Thumpback. “Hey, meathead, quit playin’ with the ship! We’ve got bigger fish to fry!”

The whale retracted his weapon and turned to face Bowser. “Time to drop anchor, then.” Both titans began to approach one another, though in terms of size Thumpback definitely had the Koopa King beat. “Let’s dance, turtle!”

An unusual but not unknown situation for the littler big guy. 

[color=FD0000]”Alright, show time!”[/color] he declared, and then owned his mouth... And found bubbles coming out instead of a fireball. [color=FD0000]”uh, alright”[/color] the king said before recovering and putting up his dukes [color=FD0000]”Alright bring it”[/color] he said, bouncing from foot to foot and then snapping his shell open to deploy two spider Dreugh limbs out the bottom and using them and water jets from his cannons to launch himself forwards with a massively wound up right hook, Kinetic Strike Module blowing bubbles as its engines failed to ignite under the water.

Up above Rika popped her head out for air, and then had a thought. If those two could work just fine under water, could she? She was fairly sure they weren't submarine princesses, but rather a cruiser and a destroyer. She steeled herself, ducked into the water, and took a hesitant shallow breath. Unfortunately, the dilution of her Abyssal nature through spirit fusion left her water-breathing abilities sorely lacking. A little got through, but it still felt like choking, enough to force an instinctive panic response, she ship girl scrambling for the surface and hacking up the water up there before cursing [color=Aqua]”Belech! No, that didn't work”[/color] 

Down below, Thumpback accepted Bowser’s challenge while his uneasy allies worked through the remainder of Marie’s skeleton horde. Though the King Koopa moved faster than one might expect, water resistance hindered any large objection’s acceleration through the deep, giving Thumpback enough time to answer in kind. With longer limbs he aimed a giant kick at Bowser’s middle, then planned to swing his anchor like massive flail once the blow connected, not even considering the possibility that things might not go to plan.

[color=FD0000]”Ooof”[/color] went Bowser as he got booted in the gut, bubbles streaming from his mouth as he was punted back. Still he had enough sense in him to spot the incoming spin, the king popping the turrets on the side of incoming blow out, and firing a blast of water out of them, turning him towards the incoming wrecking chain. 

Positioned correctly, he raised his dukes, mecha mit shield and kinetic strike module both raised side by side in a boxer’s guard to block the hit. That wasn’t all he did though, and as the king landed he deployed the other three sets of cannons on the side now facing Thumpback and blindly fired cannon shells in his direction.

With how close he was to such a large target, however, Bowser was in luck. The shells burst forth and struck Thumpback before the water resistance slowed them down, resulting to a chain explosion to the torso. Additionally, blocking his anchor robbed it of all its momentum, leaving it dead weight in the water for the whale to drag along the ocean floor as he stumbled back from Bowser’s broadside. “Ghh!” Thumpback bubbled, irate but able to keep himself under control. He snagged his anchor on a rock and used it as leverage to burst forward again. This time he went in with a tackle to open Bowser up, his true purpose being to reach out with his giant mitt and grab the Koopa by the head. Even if bludgeoning didn’t work well underwater, crushing force would do the job just fine.

Another burst of water, another turn, and Bowser was presenting his spiky shell back to the incoming whale. However, this meant that if he did tough out the spikes, Bowser wasn't going to be able to dodge the attack. Fortunately for Bowser however, he was a turtle.

Unable to halt his momentum, Thumpback ran into the spikes, albeit not at high speed and with enough natural durability that it wouldn’t be too bad. His attempt to get a grip on Bowser failed as his target withdrew into his shell, though that also gave the whale free reign for a moment to do what he pleased. He upended the shell and planted Bowser spikes-first into the seabed, then with his anchor in hand, began to drive its point into Bowser’s middle with both hands.

Nearby, the skeleton onslaught was coming to an end. Adie swerved out of the way of an undead sailor and brought her arm cannon down on top of it, pinning it against the gravelly sea floor in a spray of sediment. With a scowl she brought her heel down, shattering the skull. Elsie, back to back with her sister, cleaved the last couple boneheads in half with her laser, then scanned her surroundings. “The enemy wave has petered out.”

“Why are you telling this to the one with sonar?” Despite her reproach Adie held her fist up beside her, and Elsie clanked her own against it. On the outside one might seem obnoxiously critical and the other coldly aloof, but the sisters didn’t need words to express their bond. “Let’s focus on the big lunk who thinks he can muscle in on our turf.”

“Understood.” With Elsie in the lead, the Abyssals swam to assist Thumpback.

Which was right about the time a recovered Rika got back in the fight, the ship girl having to hold her breath as she rode atop the back of her whale that was diving down towards the ship girls at a right angle to how they were trying to go after Bowser.  Ship and girl opened fire on the other two, shells and torpedoes flying, until there was a click and the highest caliber of the ship girl's assorted guns suddenly unleashed a veritable wave of shots as her All Out Assault triggered. 

Adie whipped around like she’d heard someone talking behind her back, fully informed about the smorgasbord of ordnance headed her way thanks to her sonar. “Elsie, watch it!”

While the shells fizzled out, the torpedoes bore down on them en masse, moving quickly. There wasn’t enough time to flee for cover, and they couldn’t mow all of them down in time, even while swimming backward. Elsie’s gaze turned to the sea floor. “Adie. Dust Bowl.”

“Yeah, sure!” With their artillery the sisters pounded away at the ground around them, kicking up a massive cloud of sand and stone that hung suspended in the water. It spread for hundreds of feet in every direction and obscured their position. Rika’s torpedo fusillade disappeared inside, a few detonating on contact with larger pieces of rubble, and the rest plowing blindly through to blow up as close to the Abyssals’ last known location as possible. A veritable fireworks display went off inside the silkscreen, and when it finally came to an end, the dust settled with no sign of the sisters to be found except Elsie’s mask, shattered in half.

[color=Aqua]”!”[/color] Rika couldn't speak, but she was certainly alarmed by her seemingly having killed the sisters… only to then realize there were no spirits. That relieved her, and also alarmed her slightly, because they could be anywhere.

At least they weren't bearing down on Bowser any more, and so, with her barrage done, she had her whale bring her up for air.

Meanwhile the ship girl’s target was in the worst position for a turtle to be: tipped on his back. Not a good time. He poked his head out of his shell just in time to react to the blow, his claws reaching up to try and grab the wide bars of the anchor before it smashed point first into his gut.

This would leave him and the whale kind of stuck, so Bowser did his best to wrestle himself to the side, Dreugh limbs deployed from his shell trying to help with that. He also got himself some more help on top of that, and with a [color=FD0000]”Get him boys!”[/color] summoned Mallet and Sledge right above Thumpback, who dropped down to grab him and start whacking him with their hammers before they ran out of air.

Unbothered by the flies buzzing around him, Thumpback wrestled back. He lifted a foot to try to pin Bowser down, then applied pressure.

[color=FD0000]”Oof, argh, hey, maybe we can talk this out?”[/color] Bowser said, now stuck holding the anchor as he started getting the air crushed out of him by a stomping foot. Turns out letting yourself get caught by the bigger guy was not a smart move, and his smallfry went doing much. He had something of a trump card, but he wasn't sure where the ship girls where’s so he couldn't risk it, and instead he dug in to his toolkit of stickers for a different one, summoning Trowlon just under the thigh of the leg Thumpback was using to crush him, and then having the large lifter rise up to try and off balance the whale enough to toss him off and then use his cannons to jet propel himself away from the massive bruiser. 

The Trowlon’s uncanny ascending abilities worked flawlessly, levering Thumpback right off his target. Off-balance and too heavy to do much of anything about it, he stumbled backward while windmilling his arms, and Bowser got away.

Not too far away, Rika’s retreat prompted the sea floor to stir. Adie and Elsie arose from the muck, the former’s gremlin leer and the latter’s dazzling, almost crystalline aquamarine eyes fixed on Rika as she went up for air. “If you think that little stunt sank us…” Adie began.

“...You’re dead wrong,” Elsie finished.

 The two unleashed a swarm of cuttlefish torpedoes, followed shortly by Elsie’s Abyssal Searchlight. When Rika turned around, its eye-searing glare would momentarily blind her, leaving her and the white whale at the mercy of a terrific bombardment.

Though she couldn't see what was coming, she had to assume something was coming, and so there was only one course of action she had open to her. The girl tapped the side of her whale and then leaned down close as it sped up, racing towards the surface, trying to outrun the shots.

While her dated sunglasses did not dim the glare, they did help in another way as any shots that got within a 5 foot radius were slowed by their power. She fired her turrets backwards blindly too, but the goal was simple. Breach the water with stylish amounts of speed and leave the torpedoes floundering in the water. Hounded by a series of explosions for too close for comfort, her whale burst from the waves, but things did not go quite according to plan .With its giant mouth, arms, and tiny tail, her ride did not build up enough speed. It cleared the water, but only just, and the torpedoes that arrived soon after either struck the monstrous beluga away from Rika, or hit her slow-down field to hang in the air like floating mines when the whale crashed down. It smacked into the water hard, severely wounded, but Rika got flung off having avoided most of the damage.

Down below Bowser had gotten himself free, and now needed to try and work out a way to not repeat his sluggish leap of an opener. He scratched his cheek for a few moments, and then got a Bowser of an idea: if jumping resulted in slow, then he just had to do a run instead. So he did just that, stomping at first and then storming forwards, fist balled up for a pretty telegraphed right hook, while a Dreugh held back and charged electricity, ready for a more sneaky left jab.

Underwater, just about everything happened in slow motion, which included Thumpback’s response. He found his footing and turned to Bowser to bring both fists down on him when he came near, but the Koopa King was tougher cookie than Thumpback bargained for. Instead of flattening Bowser against the sea bed, the whale’s fists came up short against the turtle’s shell, and the next moment Bowser’s own strikes hit home. Electricity packed a punch down here, more than making up for what the spiky bruiser lost in speed as he went on the offensive.

[color=FD0000]”Ah ha! That’ll work”[/color] Bowser said, getting a clue and backing up just a bit so he could use his arms as well as shell to guard against more attacks, and then started jabbing away with the Dreugh limbs when they had charged up, aiming to deliver shock after shock if he could.

[color=Aqua]”Ahhhhh!”[/color] Rika screamed as she went flailing through the air off the back of her critically wounded whale, surrounded by explosions before splashing down with a stumbling gait atop the waves once more, only now she was soaked with seawater

[color=Aqua]”Ahhhhh whoreson,”[/color] she swore, and then pivoted before more shots came in and wracked her brains.

[color=Aqua]”I… can't beat them two on one and in their element”[/color] she concluded and then resolving  [color=Aqua]”So… gotta trust Bowser, and keep them off of him till he’s done with that big whale guy”[/color]

With that in mind she commanded [color=Aqua]”Suppressing fire”[/color] and went back to using her scout planes to track the underwater ship girls, spacing out her fire so she could conserve ammo while keeping their focus on her and what little remained of her wrecked whale. 

Far below, Elsie narrowed her eyes. “Looks like she’s had enough of us.”

“That’s a shame, ‘cause we’ve only just gotten started.” Adie did not feel challenged by the handful of shots winding their way down through the water. “C’mon, let’s teach her a lesson.

Her sister peered over at Thumpback. His seafloor slugfest with Bowser had continued to intensify for a few moments now, trading hefty blows back and forth. Bit by bit, the whale was beginning to realize that despite being smaller, his opponent was more of a powerhouse than he first suspected. “Shouldn’t we help him?” Elsie ventured. “Our crews are ostensibly working together on this mission, after all.”

“Eh…you know, we prooooobably should. But wouldn’t it be funny if we didn’t?” Adie said, smirking.

Elsie tilted her head, a dry smile on her face. One joint venture wasn’t about to smooth over the months of bad blood built up between the Risky and LeFwee pirates, the submariners most of all. Though many came and went, Thumpback and the Abyss Sisters remained, locked in a stalemate of sheer brawn versus firepower. Even the most indifferent Marauder couldn’t snub a chance like this. “...I concur.”

“HEY!” Thumpback bellowed, bubbles flying from his mouth. His baleen had been chipped in the fight, and his lips bled into the water. “Don’t turn your backs on my, you conniving fiends. What about the truce?”

Elsie crossed her arms, her tone matter of fact. “The truce pertained only  to not harming one another. It didn’t say anything about save you.”

“Have fun with your little playmate there, blubber brains!” Adie laughed, turning away. She swam up toward the Adrian, which at this point had sunken to just above its second deck, and Elsie followed. Once they took shelter directly beneath the ship, taking out Rika’s torpedoes along the way, the scout planes lost her. From there they would seemingly hide out, further destroying the pirate ship in order to force Rika to come to them, but the two took a more devious tactic. They pushed up into the Adrian’s underbelly through the holes, swam through its gutted interior, and climbed up onto the ship itself. In only a few short moments, the sisters stood in the captain’s quarters, looking down at Rika through a hole in the side. “She’s almost cute,” she muttered as she took aim with her guns. “Like a seal puppy chasing its own tail.”

Elsie leveled her four-barreled arm cannon at Rika as well. “Weapons hot.”

Rika was completely blindsided by this strategy, having not even considered that they would ever board the ship, let alone get up there uncontested. Her sunglasses flashed as the shots came in, but they only gave her time to turn towards her attackers and receive shellfire to the gut. A blast slammed into her chest, sending her skidding back. She raised her her gauntlets in guard and tried to be evasive, but she had been out positioned on top of being outnumbered, her whale going down in the first volley.

Explosions sang, shells slammed, and then with a one two hit Rika’s defenders were blown apart and she was blown away after a dozen heartbeats of resistance, the final explosion sending her flying a short distance away from the ship towards the cannon tower before she hit the water, out cold, and started sinking, bubbles trailing from her lips.

Down below Bowser had been busy dismantling Thumpback’s defenses, simply overwhelming the bigger brute with shocking stabs, claw swipes and balsts of poison from his cruel cannons.

[color=FD0000]”And this, this is why you don’t do villainous team ups,”[/color] Bowser helpfully enlightened his foe as he dealt him a thousand cuts [color=FD0000]”They always stab you in the back or leave you to face the hero on your own while they take the prize.”[/color] 

“So just like you and yours, leaving her to those two,” Thumpback garbled, choking on poisoned ocean water, bleeding from cuts and muscles spasming from electric shocks.

[color=FD0000]”What…?”[/color] Bowser didn’t get it, for a moment, but then he got a cock sure look on his face as he insisted [color=FD0000]”Ha, no, Rika can handle herself”[/color] 

The whale just let out a single “ha” as he finally fell, rendered too weak to stand by . The gave a victorious grin, and then saw where his enemy’s eyes were looking. Up and past him. 

The seafloor locked King spun, eyes wide, looked up, and saw Rika sinking towards him.

[color=FD0000]”NO!”[/color] Bowser cried out, running towards her and then trying futilely to swim up to catch her, his weight dragging his boyantless form down every time.

The Abyssals lowered their smoking weapons. “Target eliminated,” Elsie reported.

“Eh, she might still be kickin’ around down there, but whatever. Close enough,” Adie replied, shrugging.

Elsie looked around at the Adrian, noting how the water had risen above the second deck, as well as the ship’s pronounced list to one side. “It looks like our job is just about done here.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Adie said, a smug smile on her face. “This ship’s doomed, so we’ve done all we need to. Might as well clock out early, eh? And if things go belly-up here, well, we’ll be long gone, eh?”

“Agreed.” With a final glance at the place where Rika went down, the sisters prepared to leave the battle.

Which was exactly when a monstrosity burst from the waves, the towering terror of tentacles that was Scylla breaching the waves and, upon her back was Bowser. The king was looking very worse for wear due to the strain of the summoning, but he held in one hand: Rika, and in the other: the form of Heel, the Rabbid supporter striker which he was using/commanding to wake up the unconscious ship girl and bring her back from the edge of death just as someone in the background was calling out [color=SpringGreen]”Kaaameeeek!”[/color]

The sight of not just Bowser, but a gigantic deep-sea horror emerging from the water took the sisters completely aback, and they quickly shrunk away from the hole in the the wall of the captain’s quarters. With all those enormous limbs and fangs almost close enough to reach out and touch, it wasn’t hard to imagine what had become of Thumpback, and with more enemies on the way, the two suddenly felt very confident in their decision to bug out. “Oh!” They went for the door at the exact same time and got stuck, crammed in the doorway for a moment as both struggled to be the first out. After a few seconds of urgent whispers and shoving, Elsie pushed through and promptly fell flat, only to get stepped on by Adie as she ran for the port-side railing. Brows furrowed, Elsie reached up and grabbed her sister’s ankle, tripping her. With a muffled swear the girl tumbled over the railing in an ungainly fashion, and the next second Elsie dove after her.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Ah, well, that solves that problem”[/color] said a voice after the sisters had made a run for it, before Kamek’s head emerged from under the captain’s desk. She briefly poked her head out the door to confirm that yes, the abyssals where indeed running for it, before turning back and heading for the hole they had been looking out off, the head of her broom tapping against the deck of the ship as she went.

When she stepped to the edge she found two things. First, the water was rapidly rising, or that her and the ship was rapidly sinking.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh dear. The captain will not be pleased about that”[/color] she noted, before looking up and finding the second thing: a heavily overloaded clown car stuffed full of wounded people (one of which she didn’t even know), and also a very cramped Jr clamoring for her attention.

[color=SpringGreen]”Kaaameeeek! Kamek Kamek Kamek! Help!”[/color] the prince demanded

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I leave you alone for… fine fine scoot over. Ship’s going down”[/color] she told him, before pulling out a mana potion, popping the cork and chugging it. Her cheeks briefly bloated as she was struck with mana sickness that combined with her fatigue in just the worst way, but it was enough for her to be able to pop out a set of white mage clones to start trying to do something about the damage they’d all taken. 

[center][hider=Results][b]Party:[/b] Bowser, Rika
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] +10 EXP
[b]Additional Reward:[/b] None[/hider][/center]