[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1639 (+3) 
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (221/110)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]// (108/110)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]///(107/110)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 6 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]////////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////////////////// (40/60)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Under - The Colorless Wood
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[color=FD0000]”-and that’s why I said it was like tv static”[/color] Bowser concluded, having explained the concept to his young son.

[color=SpringGreen]”ooooh, ok, I get it”[/color] Jr replied, nodding earnestly, before glancing over at the other two troop members and saying [color=SpringGreen]”Isn’t that cool!”[/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”hmmm? Oh. yes. very”[/color] Kamek lied, clearly distracted by something. What that something was was something Rika cleared up when she was, unlike the old mage, entirely honest about having tuned out the royal’s conversation: [color=Aqua]”Sorry what was that? I’ve been kinda distracted by my planes being weird”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Wow. Rude”[/color] Jr harrumphed, looking mighty upset that the shipgirl hadn’t listened to his papa’s words of wisdom

[color=FD0000]”Eh, it’s fine”[/color] Bowser insisted in-order to placate the boy, before asking [color=FD0000]”So what’s up with your planes then?”[/color] 

To answer that, Kamek pointed one out, the scout plane flailing around senselessly in the air as it tried to push past some invisible obstacle.

[color=SpringGreen]”Oh huh yeah that is weird”[/color] Jr agreed, easily distracted

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Indeed”[/color]

[color=Aqua]”Also neither of the other two got stuck, which is super unfair!”[/color] Rika complained, and indeed, if they were to peer into the woods the royals could see the striker and wisps happily ignoring whatever had trapped the plane. Both the planes. The other one was just stuck much deeper in the woods than the one that had first been pointed out.

[color=SpringGreen]”I mean, if there’s something invisible there, then I have a way to sort that”[/color] Jr said before carefully rolling his clown car forwards on go-kart wheels, heeding his elders’ requests for him to be careful as he cautiously approaching the plane. 

While still a fair bit away from the trapped remote control aircraft, the prince pulled out his paintbrush and gave it a few flicks, launching splats of goop forth. The ink-like slime splashed onto and around the plane, and painted into visibility what had been unseen: a massive spider’s web, one who’s strands had been invisible to the naked eye.

The tapestry hung there for a moment, glistening in the mist, before the goop began to rapidly eat through the silk, causing the web to disintegrate, freeing the plane from its grasp. It dropped, caught itself with its thrusters, did a little loop de loop to clear the goop off of it … and then almost immediately flew into another web.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well I never… is the entire wood just filled with these webs?”[/color] Kamek asked, the magikoopa having carefully followed after Jr’s trail to join up with him.

[color=FD0000]”Yeah, definitely”[/color] Bowser, who had not done as his wise advisor had done, agreed as he tugged an arm to try and free it from an invisible grip. He grunted in frustration, and then opened his maw, flames licking his lips as he prepared to deal with the problem, only for Kamek to interject [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Wait! Sire, careful, we don’t want to risk burning down the woods while we are in them”[/color] 
 
The king gave a frustrated sigh, but he nonetheless waited for jr to clear the webbing using splashes of goop. With him free, the plane re-freed, and the mystery solved, the troop wandered back to join Primrose and Rubick and actually addressed the former’s question about what they should be doing, and whether they should look any further.

[color=FD0000]”This place seems like it’ll be really annoying”[/color] Bowser summarized [color=FD0000]”Not being able to go 3 steps without getting web stuck on you? No thanks”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Boring too”[/color] Jr added, not appreciating the region’s aesthetic [color=SpringGreen]”I mean, who’d get rid of all the color? Seems real lame to me”[/color]

[color=FD0000]”Reminds me of that whole situation with the black paint, which was just groan worthy”[/color] Bowser said, and when asked for more details, declared it not even worth talking about

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well, anyway, I for one do not particularly want to find out where the spiders who made the webs went”[/color] Kamek added after that. Both options of either they were hiding, or that they had been eaten by something even worse, were bad in his mind.

Things seemed pretty conclusive on their front, until Rika coughed awkwardly and then asked [color=Aqua]”Could we, uh, maybe go and get my plane before we leave though?”[/color] before pointing her bayonet towards the trapped aircraft jerking about in the mist, its luck at having narrowly avoided an unknown number of webs to get all the way out there into the mist having now turned around into a curse.

The answer to that question was obvious for the rest of the Troop, and that was how they ended up heading deeper into the woods, with or without the two heroes.

Jr led the way, splashing the area ahead of them with goop to detect and destroy the webs, which resulted in a path of sorts forming, one made of a layer of magical slime coating the forest floor. Bowser’s boots tramped atop this, while Rika gilded above its surface, and Kamek hovered low at the back, occasionally popping a torch on a passing tree as he went to fully cement the pathway.

As they trekked through the mist, the sound of static grew subtly louder and louder, the intruders being submerged in a sound like frogs being boiled, such that they would not notice consciously how much it had increased in volume till it was too late. 

Add to this the subtle sights of things just beyond their vision, and safe to say, they were not having a good time.

[color=SpringGreen]”Almost there, almost there, almost there”[/color] Jr muttered to himself as they went, all of them getting more and more unnerved until, at last [color=SpringGreen]”We’re here!”[/color] 
 
The prince’s goop splashing hit the web holding the second plane, freeing it up and allowing it to hover back over to its owner, the little aircraft snuggly slotting itself away in the unoccupied gauntlet hanger it had deployed from.

[color=Aqua]”Thanks guys! Now uh, lets go, this place is way to spooky”[/color] Rika said, but Jr just had to ask [color=SpringGreen]”Do we need to go find the wisps or-”[/color] only to be interrupted by their timely return as they teleported into the midst of the group. Something neither royal would admit being startled by, but which defiantly did.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Ah good, your back, did you find anything of note”[/color] Kamek asked after he’d recovered from the surprise, to which the wisps responded by forming an arrow and pointing off towards the center of the forested cavern. The troop all peered into the mist and vaguely spied the out of place hotel and its neon sign … right before the howl rang out and the massive spider pulled itself atop this newly spotted landmark, and screamed something about a queen at them.

That was about when the forest around them went mad, a wave of skittering sounds rolling out as the hiding spiders revealed themselves at last, with sound if not sight. Their bodies were still invisible in the mist, even if it was now obvious they were out there. Somewhere, and getting closer every second.

An immediate response of panicked blind shooting resulted from this from all but one member of the troop, with Rika opening up with her assault rifle and canons, Bowser with shoulder cannons and a shower of shell spikes joining in, and Jr with his crank operated Mulcher machine gun offering a baseline of noise, all of them firing into the mist at the approaching sound, guns roaring in defiance.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Stop, stop, you aren't hitting anything!”[/color] Kamek called over the din [color=DeepSkyBlue]”We need to fall back!”[/color]

His strategy fell on (literally) deaf ears until he physically grabbed Jr and got him to stop, then got the boy to get his father’s attention with ease, while the mage halted the ship girl’s own fire.  

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”We need to go!”[/color] Kamek reasserted after they’d wasted valuable time

[color=SpringGreen]”No we don’t, we just need to fight smarter!”[/color] Jr retorted, before clarifying that they should [color=SpringGreen]”use attacks that hit lots of stuff!”[/color] 

[color=SpringGreen]”Dad, use those sonic attacks you have!”[/color] he commanded, while pulling out a pokeball and deploying his Popplio to ride next to him in his car, ordering his pokemon to attack as well with [color=SpringGreen]”Dazzle, hit everything out there with your icy wind”[/color]

They did just that, Bowser deploying his shoulder cannons again, but switching them from shell fire to conal screams of super sonic sound that he could sweep through the mist: sowing confusion amidst the spider hordes without needing to be aimed at any one target. Dazzle meanwhile deployed and popped a string of bubbles, unleashing wide gusts of bitingly cold air that, importantly, also reduced the speed of everything they hit.

[color=SpringGreen]”Kamek give us, uh… oh, i know, make more of me! And then we’ll all make a big mess of these woods!”[/color] Jr snapped his fingers as he came up with a plan to let them hold their ground

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”oh? Ah, yes! At once young master!!”[/color] the mage agreed, opening up a series of portal and summon shadow juniors who, along with the original, unleashed a flood of goop all around them using their paint brushes, their ink dissolving away at any nearby webs, and splattering ground and trees in a radius around them with ink which would slow down the spiders if they tried to come at them over land after their silky pathways where gone.

[color=Aqua]”What about me! Shooting stuff was all I had!”[/color] Rika called out, to which jr replied [color=SpringGreen]”then shoot the big one!”[/color] 

[color=Aqua]”Oh… duh”[/color] Rika responded, and then turned her firepower on the target they could see, the ship girl instinctively angling her guns up just a bit so that her shots would fly in an arc and rain down on the somewhat distant titanic spider, where they might have fallen short had she aimed right at it due to bullet (or rather shell) drop.