[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img] [h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 8665 (+10) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (222/120) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////// (113/120) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////// (97/120) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]////////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////////////////////////////////////// (39/80) Level 10 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) - (78/100) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Under - Home of Tears [hider=warp locations] [s] Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach [/s] [/hider] [/center] Sectonia, having not slept the previous night thanks to that consul, had her antillions set up camp. Seeing as there were others that were as tired, if not way more tired than her like Nadia, she also told her antillions to get them ready and in bed and protect the camp while they all slept. Entering her tent, it wasn't super opulent like she liked, but she was too tired to really complain all that much about 'roughing' it, and just crashed for the night. Her dreams weren't as extensive as some of the others, with it being mostly just her looking into that large body mirror she used to lok at herself through back on Floralia, although a bright, bright light started to encompass everything around, reflecting off the mirror and blinding her, with her seeing a white, fluffy figure in the light before she woke up. Upon waking, Sectonia was rested, but didn't really feel it. Being the beauty queen she was, she took a bit to get herself presentable and ready before leaving her tent. Upon leaving her tent, she saw a disheveled Nadia who looked like she tried to groom herself, although she didn't do a good job. Surprisingly she had managed to wake up before the koopa clan and the 'king of evil', and even with her prep time, she was up and about before then. Perhaps those sounds she heard before she fell into dream land were them arguing. They did seem to have history, and it wasn't all that good, so that could've been it. After observing, Sectonia wasn't too impressed with the area. Although purple bricks were quite an odd choice, the look of these pizza trolls wasn't much to be desired. What's more, they seemed to block the way until the group found stuff they wanted, and they wouldn't tell Nadia what they wanted. They seemed to live up to their name then, but in an effort to try to deal with the rage of, well, basically the whole group but mostly the royals, they offered a deal almost in spite of their own nature. An infinite storage bag and boxes that preserved things perfectly, specifically pizza, and even suggested the group use these to get all the food they could need to survive out here in the 'wilds'. [color=92278f]"In spite of our rage at such a random, potentially time consuming request, you offer us a method of dealing with a food crisis. I am curious as to why. It seems both requests are paradoxical in nature."[/color] Sectonia said, questioning the trolls. "Para-whatta? Rage?" Arno scratched his head, looking around. "Doesn't seem like anyone's mad to me lady. You come to Pizza Tower, you get pizza. Just gotta work a little for it, that's all." they replied. Sectonia wasn't stupid, if they refused to answer or just avoided the question like they just did, she knew it was someone above them and this was their way of helping. Well, if they weren't going to be annoying about it. She could always mind control them if they were far too annoying. Although this might take some time, since well... this was an infinite food source and it would take the seekers time to find enough food for the group. Nadia had accepted their offer without question, and just as she was deciding which of the rooms to go into, Sectonia stopped her for a moment. [color=92278f]"Before you go catch your fish, you should at least look proper. You were out of sorts after what happened yesterday after all."[/color] Sectonia said, summoning a couple antillions to clean up Nadia's hair and make her look proper before she went into her pizza run. This didn't hold Nadia back for very long, as she was far smaller than Sectonia herself, and soon the feral was off on her own little 'pizza run'. Speaking of a pizza run, she had to figure out where she would go. The queen’s musings were interrupted by what was now becoming a rather common event: a request for Rika to don the hat of greed so that she could crush some spirits. Specifically that request came from the girl herself, and her now brother bowser junior, who was unusually on foot rather than riding around in his clown themed flying machine. [color=SpringGreen]”SAYU, that giant mermaid v-tuber, busted it up when she kicked it”[/color] the prince explained when asked, before reassuring the queen and princess. Sectonia could only ask [color=92278f]”What is a v-tuber?”[/color] but got cut off mid sentence by Jr saying. [color=SpringGreen]”But don’t worry, I got something out of that to make up for it, so I’m not gonna be slowed down one bit”[/color] [color=Aqua]”You mean the tape right?”[/color] Rka asked, before ignoring the preceding whining about spoilers and instead repeating the request [color=Aqua]”Could we please borrow your hat again? I have these flukes that we killed because they were stealing food from the city”[/color] before broaching a question on morality [color=Aqua]”Wait, isn’t that what we’re about to do now? So is that a bad thing or not?”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”I uh”[/color] Jr umm’ed, not really knowing how to address that, before noticing a discrepancy and jumping on that [color=SpringGreen]”hey wait what happened to those adventurer monsters that we found dead on the ground? And I ‘m sure there was more flukes”[/color] [color=Aqua]”You did make minions out of some of them”[/color] the shipgirl pointed out, only for jr to retort that [color=SpringGreen]”No I mean the other ones, dummy”[/color] [hider=striker] [b]Flukefey[/b] An airborne fluke on a short cooldown. Its only move after being summoned is to fly toward a target, homing in slightly as it picks up speed, in order to bite it Multi absorption via Minion Captain Power results in a swarm of flukes being summoned to perform a swooping barrage [/hider] [color=92278f]”From what I can tell, this place generates infinite food. Far different from a place that has limited food being stolen.”[/color] Sectonia said, a bit taken aback at these two having a ‘moral’ question after having done all the stuff they have. Still, she was fine with them crushing their loot, with the same stipulations as before. [color=Aqua]”Oh. Ok that makes sense yeah”[/color] Rika replied to the queen, before thinking a bit, and theorizing [color=Aqua]”I think we must have had them for too long and they faded away?”[/color] regarding the missing spirits. [color=SpringGreen]”Aw, that is so lame”[/color] the prince sulked, mood dampened a little, though there was still treasure to be had. [hider=For Junior] You have acquired: [b]Geo[/b] x1850 [b][url=https://i.imgur.com/DM89UNW.png]Flukenest[/url][/b] [i]A living charm that can be affixed to one's clothing. It transforms outgoing projectile spells into masses of volatile baby flukes near equal in size to the original projectile. This increases their damage, potentially doubling it, but also severely reduces the spells' range and makes them less reliable, as the flukes' explosion isn't consistent. It also removes any added effects or elements from said spells[/i] [b]Wiggle Worm[/b] A living, energetic trinket that causes projectiles and spells to travel in a from side to side as they fly, making them more chaotic. In addition to being harder to dodge and harder to hit, they also fire 40% faster [b]Brain Worm[/b] A living, intelligent trinket that, if the user isn't too close to the target, will cause missed projectiles to hook 90-degree turns to try and hit the instant said projectiles pass perpendicular to the missed target. This can happen once per projectile [b]Pulse Worm[/b] A living, bipolar trinket that causes projectiles to undulate between 150% size and 50% size as they fly, making them alternatively easier and harder to hit. The undulation happens the same way every time [b]Lazy Worm[/b] A living, lackadaisical trinket that causes projectiles and spells to move 50% slower, but with 40% extra range [b]Flat Worm[/b] A living, dopey trinket that increased the width of projectiles and spells, giving them an oblong shape that makes them easier to hit with [/hider] If you called a pile of worms treasure that is. [color=SpringGreen]”Eww what even the stuff they give is gross”[/color] the prince compiled, as Rika stood there nonchalantly holding the wiggling worms in her crushing hand. Sectonia was as repulsed as the younger of two kids, but her curiosity on scanning their magic found quite a few interesting things coming from these wriggling worms. [color=92278f]”Hm…. With the trinket smelter, I suppose we wouldn’t have to hold onto these ‘worms’. Either way, they seem to have magical attributes of their own when held.”[/color] with sectonia explaining what she sees from each worm. Honestly thanks to that trinket smelter, she was interested in a couple of them that would make her projectiles very, very difficult to dodge out of their sheer chaos. [color=Aqua]”Huh, they do all that?”[/color] Rika, who had little context as to why the worms were repulsive and just sort of found them strange. As such she was still holding them after the explanation, and thus had the opportunity to test the result of holding all of them. The resulting slow moving, pulsating, oval shaped wildly swaying from side to side shot from her grizco blaster was certainly a sight to behold as it flew through the air for a fair bit longer than normal before detonating off to one side of where the ship girl had been aiming. [color=Aqua]”Ok, that is like, super weird. How am I supposed to hit anything like that?”[/color] she asked, and she had a point. Only fear of ricochets made her hold off on firing her rifle, but she could only imagine how utterly unhelpful it would be to adjust those [color=Aqua]”I mean, how does it help at all?”[/color] Taking the wiggle worm, Sectonia showed Rika how it could be of use to her as she fired off a ring of light, which in addition to the weird attributes her mask gave her, also now wiggled making it much less predictable. Although due to its size, this also made it much, much harder to dodge. At least no one would be hurt by it with her control over friendly fire matters, but it did show how she could use them. [color=92278f]”This one, that one, and that one would make dodging my attacks even harder than they were before. And surprisingly more accurate.”[/color] Sectonia said, almost self burning herself as all she had to do was de-equip her mask that tripled her projectile count in order to get her accuracy back. [color=Aqua]”Ohhhh, I get it now”[/color] Rika ooo’d before asking [color=Aqua]”Do you want them then? They seem to work way better for you than for me, seeing as yours are already big and stuff”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”Which leaves us with the really useless slow one”[/color] Jr complained, only for Rika to add [color=Aqua]”And the fluke one”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”I guess but … oh, maybe if I”[/color] the prince mumbled to himself, theorizing to himself about how to use the fluke nest. Then he snapped his fingers, attaching it to his bib, and the raising up his paintbrush and casting [color=SpringGreen]”Stone!”[/color] which caused a brick to be ripped from the wall, and then for that brick to immediately explode into a shower of tiny [url=https://i.imgur.com/WZM2Fyj.png]fluklings[/url], which then promptly exploded like goopy firecrackers. [color=SpringGreen]”I. Alright. I guess”[/color] Jr said, still not entirely convinced this was good. [color=92278f]”Worse comes to worse, perhaps a magic shop would be interested in such matters the next time we encounter one.”[/color] Sectonia said to Jr. to cheer him up a bit. [color=Aqua]”Anyway”[/color] Rika said, having now handed over the relevant worms and pocketed the cash, [color=Aqua]”there was one other thing, and that was that Dad Bowser said we should go with someone else while doing this. You know to be safe. Also so he and Ganandorf can fight or something I think? I dunno”[/color] even if she wasn’t blind to the hostility between the two [color=Aqua]”So would you like to come with us? Or have us go with you?”[/color] Sectonia looked at the two and thought for a moment. [color=92278f]”I suppose if you are going to where I am, I don’t see why not.”[/color] Saying that, Sectonia pointed at Peppibot factory, the two seeing that the queen had quite the sweet tooth if her first instinct was to go to desert land. [color=SpringGreen]”Wait, you want to go there too?”[/color] Jr said, surprised, particularly because he was fairly sure that the ‘go with other people’ had also been an attempt to stop the youngsters going for sweets. Well that plan had failed spectacularly, which got a cheer of delight from the pair. Sectonia wasn’t sure how to reply to that with nothing but a simple. [color=92278f]”Of course, why wouldn’t I?”[/color]. She hadn’t been secretive about her sweet tooth, but it still was strange to talk about eating habits. [color=Aqua]”I can hardly wait! So let’s go already!”[/color] Rika insisted, only for jr to request [color=SpringGreen]”just one sec”[/color] as he popped a set of headphones on, slotted a tape into a tape deck. Play was pressed, the tape began to play, and the prince was consumed by static, that flowed and expanded up until it vanished with a little flash of flare and revealed the form of the guard captain Undyne. [color=SpringGreen]”Alright! It worked!”[/color] the transformed prince cheered, before summoning and twirling around a pair of spears showally, before dismissing one and planting the butt of the other to the ground. [color=SpringGreen]”Pretty cool right!”[/color] [color=Aqua]”Yup”[/color] Rika agreed, before she made to copy him, summoning her own new polearm and giving it a spin too. They might have engaged in a contest of increasingly elaborate spear tricks, had their stomach not grumbled and reminded them of what they needed to be doing. Sectonia looked at Jr with a puzzled look on her face. [color=92278f]”This area seemed like it would be quite dangerous, have you managed to get some practice in with that?”[/color] Sectonia said. While she was neutral on him, having Bowser’s son die under her watch would lead to quite a fight, and while she found him to be a buffoon, his strength was no joke. [color=SpringGreen]”Other than being a fluke for a bit, nope, none!”[/color] Jr replied cheerfully, before clarifying that [color=SpringGreen]”But it's fine, this tape acts like a second health bar, so even if I go down as Undyne, I’ll be just fine. I’ll pop out, fit and healthy and ready for round two, and won’t that be a nasty surprise if something manages it. Not that they’re gonna”[/color] [hr] The queen hovered in through the gates of her chosen level, flanked on both sides by the pair of spear-wielding warriors, and found herself before the Peppibot factory. Or, more specifically “Joe Peppoibot: Pizza Production” going by the signage emblazoning the brick building sitting inside the room of the tower. A fantastical land of sweets it did not seem to be, and certainly, the tanks of “grade A quality pizza slop” did not seem particularly encouraging either. Yet through a few high windows they could spy patches of color, eye catching deviations in hue that stuck out from the grinding metal machinery that filled most of them. Above those windows, fumes rose from smoke stacks and then into some kind of ventilation system in the rooms walls, while ahead of them stood a set of wrought iron gates locking off a small courtyard leading up to the factory entrance. A moment later the inviting and open gateway they had entered through slammed shut with a bang, sealing the trio inside with whatever dangers lurked within. Like the fedora wearing cigar smoking [url=https://i.imgur.com/8SlThbG.gif]Weenie[/url], which patrolled past the inside of the gate, gave them a side eye through the iron bars, but did not stop or do anything else but keep walking. [color=Aqua]”Well that was weird”[/color] Rika commented, before airing the question of [color=Aqua]”So. How are we gonna get in?”[/color] [color=92278f]”If there isn't a way, we may have to break in. We do have to make an escape route for the ‘escape ‘portion, if those trolls are to be believed.”[/color] Sectonia said. [color=SpringGreen]”I mean, we’re gonna have to break in at some point, and having the front gate that’s right in front of the exit unlocked sounds like a good escape route”[/color] was jr’s preference, very much intending to just storm the place so he could fully make use of and show off his new power. [color=Aqua]”But maybe if we go around there’ll be a back door somewhere? Or even just a window we can jump up to and go in. That way we can bypass their defenses“[/color] Rika suggested. Not that she thought the patroing sausage goons looked all that dangerous, but anything could be behind the big double doors leading inside the factory. [color=ec008c]”I suppose, although I still think we’ll have to cause some chaos if this ‘pizza face’ is the threat they make him out to be. And once that starts, it won't end.”[/color] Sectonia said, fine with the stealthy approach, but very much aware they would be slinging spells and hitting things once the whole factory was alerted. [color=SpringGreen]”Fiiiiine. I guess it’d be more dramatic to bust out through the front gates anyway”[/color] Jr conceded, while Rika glanced from one side to another, and then arbitrarily decided to scout the perimeter in a clockwise direction, her little scout plane buzzing on ahead. She, through it, quickly found where the wall went tight with the building and, above, saw a window that led into the second floor of the factory. [color=Aqua]”That’ll do, I think?”[/color] she suggested, before having her plane fly up and take a peek, and finding out that within there were [color=Aqua]”Just a whole bunch of old ladies in there, making cookies. Not much of a threat at all I’d think”[/color] There was also, she reported, a simple maintenance door looking, well, door down below said window, though with it being shut she had no idea what was behind it. [color=92278f]”Let's get started then.”[/color] Sectonia said, grabbing Jr and Rika to bring them up to the window before entering herself. Starting out she summoned her squads of antillions, telling them to go about and collect/clear the factory but not to hit a ‘pullar’, whatever that was, as she herself readied herself to start throwing her own ‘pizza’ like weapons, Ie her rings of light with even more unpredictability. In front of her the two youngsters brandished their spears, and pointed them at the rows and rows and rows of grannies, who more or less failed to notice their intrusion. Instead they kept rolling dough, sticking in chocolate chips, cutting out shapes on a series of countertops running the center of the chamber, and then loading them into many many ovens lining the walls of the sweltering room. [color=SpringGreen]”This is a robbery … no it’s a requa-requweh-uh, the thing where royals can take stuff for the war effort. One of those. Now hand over the cookies and nobody .. gets … hurt?”[/color] Jr started boldly before trailing off when he realized that Rika might have been a bit light on the details. [color=92278f]”Requisition.”[/color] Sectonia said, correcting Jr. At least he was trying to be a royal. For one the grannies weren't exactly … healthy looking. Their skin was the color of exposed flesh, and wrinkled to an extent that they looked dehydrated and their eyes were glowing red, but not just with the light of galeem. Their movements were also strange. Jerky, twisting, limbs bending in ways limbs should not bend, as if they were not humans, but some other thing wearing human skin The other thing was an odd clicking sound filling the room, one which drew the trio’s gaze upwards, where they found a giant floating cookie surrounded by 2d white gloved hands that where periodically [url=https://i.imgur.com/vNnYUOd.png]clicking on it[/url]. The youths looked at it for a few moments, with a mix of hunger and dread they did not understand the source of, only to find, when they looked back down to the grannies, that each and every one was looking at them, having paused mid bake, or roll. [color=SpringGreen]”I thought you said it was just grannies”[/color] Jr hissed at his (new) sister, to which the ship girl whispered back [color=Aqua]”I mean they are aren't they? Just some kind of monster ones, right?”[/color] [color=92278f]”What kind of Sarkic eldritch… cookie… cult is this?”[/color] Sectonia said, the ‘cookie’ part of her declaration being something she didn’t understand. They would have started bickering about that, had the old ladies all cried out, at the same time, with one voice “Naughty children, you can’t have cookies for breakfast!” and then brandished their rolling pins and charged the trio while shrieking at the top of their lungs with ancient voice boxes, older than the stars. The two kids screamed with them, though they did it while opening fire, Rika with her rigging and double barreled spear butt, while Jr first tried and failed to breath fire, and then jabbed his spear forwards, sending a Torrent of watery mirrors of the weapon shooting up from around his feet. Sectonia did what she did, just throw discs of light at them, the large discs vibrating in the air now thanks to the wiggly worm and covering even more area. Grannies fell before them, but horrifically, instead of turning to ash, they instead underwent metamorphosis. Some, cut in half by Sectonia’s discuses, had their blood congeal into sacks that buoyed them up into the air, while their fingers became rigged with razor sharp teeth and their skulls burst into pulsating flesh, becoming [url=https://i.imgur.com/kIhCXVb.png]Floaty Grosses[/url]. Meanwhile the torsos of those same bisected grannies sprouted jaws at their bloody midsections, and then hold themselves up to come charging at the trio, wanting to use their massive new [url=https://i.imgur.com/eF2dd33.gif]chopmers[/url] to take a bite out of their own midsections. Others fell into a pile of guts, a few of which merged together into a mass of [url=https://i.imgur.com/LOgpMvo.gif]mouth meat[/url] with a single eye that could fire pulsating orbs of bioplasma, or sprouted legs and tentacles to become stalking [url=https://i.imgur.com/PU3KW5j.gif]abominations[/url] that spat volleys and beams of bile from their several mouths. The half dozen hulking masses dwarfed their unfused sisters, and slowly advanced upon the trio, unleashing their sickening strikes as they closed in. Finally the ones not cut down kept screaming, their lower jas elongating and muscles strengthening till they became a mass of tendons, fangs and claws called [url=https://i.imgur.com/BeXimf0.png]face monsters[/url], able to tough through attacks that the the grannies still holding onto a semblance of humanity could not. The siblings were forced to move, cutting off their fire as acid and bioplasma hit their position, rika slowing the shots enough to get away unharmed while Jr stumbled with his lanky fish woman proportions, and received an armor scorching hit from one of the mouth meats, which sent him sprawling to the floor. Rika raced to his side, driving her spear tip into the far to wide maw of a face monster, and then when that didn’t kill it, used a touch of stamina to instantaneously invert her spear, putting both barrels there instead and blowing its head clean off. There were, unfortunately, far more where it came from. [color=92278f]”Remember, we’re here for the sweets. Not dealing with…. Whatever horrors these things are.”[/color] Sectonia said as she raised her pipe of insight shield to have it block a blast of fire that had been shot her way by a granny holding a lighter to her eldritch mouth and spitting her bio plasma through it. Meanwhile a monster Sectonia had turned into chunks coalesced into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/cxKymmz.png]Mega Clotty.[/url] Seeing that there wasn’t much for them to do in this room, Sectonia turned her focus onto the giant cookie above and the various [url=https://i.imgur.com/e9xV2HI.png]Wrinklers [/url] around it. One ring of light cut through all of them and hit the large cookie itself. The wrinklers exploding into an… obscene amount of cookies. Whatever cookies showered upon the trio or any of Sectonia’s antillions that were alive were ‘collected’ by the group. The giant cookie however also fractured and exploded when hit in a dramatic dusty explosion. As the cookie dust descended upon everyone on the ground, all the uncollected cookies, grannies, and well, everything popped out of existence with an audible “pop” as a constellation of cookie shaped stars appeared where the cookie once was. [color=92278f]”Destroy the source of their worship, and the worshippers disappear….”[/color] Sectonia said, not intending for any of that to happen at all. She just wanted a chunk of the giant cookie to take with them as they escaped. She wasn’t expecting THAT to happen. [color=SpringGreen]”Uh huh, sure”[/color] Jr replied, having gotten that kind of excuse from his dad enough times to know it was a lie. Rika meanwhile went [color=Aqua]”Ohhhh. That is so smart!“[/color] genuinely impressed and 100% falling for the ruse. In her defense, she did have other things on her mind, namely leaning her spear up against a wall and then huttying over to steal a cookie from one of the antlions. She took a little chomp out of it, and gave a delighted [color=Aqua]”mmmm, so good“[/color] as she chewed and swallowed her taster, before proceeding to chow down on the rest in rapid fashion. Jr starred at this for a moment, before concluding [color=SpringGreen]”Ok, so, I guess we know the meat granny cookies are safe then”[/color] and then going for some himself. [color=SpringGreen]”Oh wow these are good”[/color] Sectonia was a bit apprehensive at eating the cookies when Jr. said they were meat granny cookies, but continued to taste test one as Jr. ignored his own words and commented on their taste. Yes, they were good, and that got Sectonia pontificating a little bit. [color=92278f]”Hm… interesting. So to chase the ultimate cookie flavor, whoever ran this place made a deal with eldritch horrors beyond this realm. Upon whom’s source of power I just destroyed.”[/color] Sectonia said. Well, at least they had thousands upon thousands of cookies to collect in their endless pizza bag, so they wouldn’t be running out of cookies anytime soon. [color=SpringGreen]”Do you think they’ll be upset?”[/color] Jr asked rhetorically, which Rika responded with [color=Aqua]”Probably“[/color] anyway, before suggesting [color=Aqua]”so we should get moving before they notice?“[/color] She indicated to an area at the other end of the room that seemed to be an exit. Notably it was not a door, but a conveyor belt, heading through a flap. Whoever had built this room had simply walled the grannies in and left the entire production process to run itself. [hr] [center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5wAmomg2ck][img]https://i.imgur.com/VOEVDPw.gif[/img] (Click for music)[/url][/center] The two children rolled out along the conveyor belt into a maze, a veritable spaghetti bolognaise of steel, with not a main bus in sight. Instead layers upon layers of machinery stretched from the ground floor up several stories to a vaulted roof. Up on high was a glass windowed overseer’s office, one which seemed to hold a massive gray pillar of some kind, which overlooked the entire chamber, and from which a person could watch the entire process of pizza production from beginning to end. From the various sectors of the factory confectionary flowed in at a steady pace, such as the cookies, and then fell into funnels atop machinery, which then dotted pizzas coming in via other conveyor belts, before sending the whole thing off to be either baked and boxed or simply immediately boxed by floating stamp creatures flying with tiny wings on their ‘handles’. Finally, after everything was packed up, they were shipped out to whatever place required the unending amount of pizza being produced. If they followed that production line back, they could doubtless find the sources of the various sweet treats, coming out of a variety of holes in the chamber’s wall like the one they had just exited. Everything from hard candy to chocolate to marshmallows and even ice cream could be seen flowing into the room, and so if they wanted ingredients all they had to do was take their pick and head for their treat of choice. Though as it turned out that was easier said than done. The trio’s own conveyor quickly came to its own terminus, a grinder that turned the cookies into crumble, forcing the kids to hop down onto the conveyor bringing the pizzas themselves. Then they had to start running along it to avoid going into the machine’s base and getting dusted with crumble, fighting against the flow of the machine and trying not to slip on the pizza bases themselves. The queen certainly had an easier time of it, though with the gordian knot nature of the assembly, she had to contend with the resulting lack of airspace, and the constant risk of getting a wing caught in a gear, oven, crusher or other mechanical hazard. This slowed her down greatly, much to her annoyance. She could at least see the other two were having an issue navigating on their own, and when they needed a bit of a boost, Sectonia could give them some Haste to let them clear the crusher. [color=Aqua]”The logistics of this place seem super bad“[/color] Rika commented, her military instincts abhorring the clutter and convoluted supply lines, while Jr replied that [color=SpringGreen]”It does make a pretty good platforming challenge though. Papa’d probably give it an 7 at least''[/color] And that was without enemies. The Bowser score might have reached a 9 when the other part of the automated factory introduced themselves, namely the eponymous [url=eponymous]peppibots[/url]. The facsimiles of a man they had not met yet where not best pleased by the kids clambering around their construction and messing with the merchandise, and they let this be known via battle ax sized [url=https://i.imgur.com/20u2vyJ.png[pizza cutters[/url] and ranged [url=https://i.imgur.com/wmELEgB.png]pizza launchers[/url]. While the wheel based bots could not engage the queen other than by taking potshots, another part of the factory could, namely fridge sized [url=https://i.imgur.com/ICYgxqF.png]logistic bots[/url]. Normally they acted as a bandaid on the factory clutter by ferrying things to and fro inside their cooled interiors, but when an intruder was spotted, they switched to defense mode, rocketing through the sky to try physical ram the intruders with all the force of, well, a rocket propelled fridge. Sectonia wasn’t having any of that. Summoning her Chaos heart shield, she really didn’t have much choice but to take these fridge rockets head on, with lightning. Lots of lightning thanks to her items, which went haphazardly everywhere. Sure it could be pointed in a direction, but beyond that not even she knew where the bolts would fly. There were a lot of them though, and while she struck down an approaching rocket fridge with her lightning, another collided against her shield, ricocheting off and into one of the wheel based bots below. Her dark lightning also made for an interesting light show, if this factory was a rave spot or something. Still, she had to make quick work of what was attacking her while the massive damage reduction of her chaos shield lasted. It was a good thing she didn’t cause friendly fire, including the electricity arching through the metal maze. What her skill did not stop was the damage that shocking caused, as machinery overloaded and caught fire, or got straight up demolished. Not that she was the only one causing carnage. Jr and rika were causing some, as shells and spears that missed the surprisingly speedy bots blasted and splashed stuff to bits, but ironically the bots were worse. Rika leapt off of a conveyor right before a fridge smashed down into when she had been standing, and shattered the belt in the process, sending it and the machinery and pizzas crashing down to the floor 3 stories below. Then her head snapped to the side, slowing a pizza themed disk that was coming at her just enough for her to combat roll under it, resulting in it whistling overhead and then detonating somewhere behind her, sending candy flying through the air. Burnt marshmallows and candy corn rained down and bounced off of Jr’s armor, or got stuck in their long flowing red hair, which felt ever so gross to him, but at least it was undyne’s hair and not his getting decorated like a dessert pizza. Then he promptly lost several hairs of said hair to a saw bladed pizza cutter that he just barely avoided, before going [color=SpringGreen]”oof''[/color] as the peppibot turned the failed killing blow into a full body charge, wheel picking up impressive pace as it rammed him towards one of the ovens. Fish and machine smashed into steel, buckling it and unleashing a gout of flame that washed over both of them, heralding a scream of pain and anger from the prince, one that transitioned seamlessly into a shout of Burning Passion as the flames empowered the prince’s form as much as the harmed it. Healing steam rose off of the cassetbeast, stitching burnt scales and flesh back together as the prince summoned a spear and rammed it through the chest of the machine, before hurling the impaled peppibot off of him and down into the mechanical mess below. Then he had to leg it as the oven behind him started coming apart at the seams [color=SpringGreen]”Sec, please tell me you can see a way out of this mess!”[/color] he shouted up at the shielded queen. Sectonia couldn’t really see much in this storm of chaos, but did see an opening they hadn’t gone into. [color=92278f]”There is something sweet coming from this outlet, and they are producing a lot of it.”[/color] Sectonia said, smelling the sweetness in the air as she pointed to an outlet a little below Jr. and Rika and made her way towards it with the other two following behind wanting to get out of this chaos. Sectonia had chosen an interesting spot. Inside was chocolate. Fields of chocolate. Everything was made out of some kind of chocolate, with a few chocolate covered items such as strawberries. All of different colors and shapes.There were even some rivers of chocolate that flowed about from a large spring that shot chocolate into the air. All around they could see various robots mining away at the chocolate, which after having a large piece taken out of it, slowly regenerated. Although chocolate before it was refined was often bitter, so with a cautionary swipe, Sectonia snapped off a piece and tried it. [color=92278f]”Hm, this area is made of premade chocolate that these things seem to be harvesting as if they were rocks. Considering the different colors here, I assume each is a different type of chocolate.”[/color] Sectonia said, pointing at the different shades of brown, black, or even occasionally white or red chocolate. Surprisingly many of the inhabitants of this area paid the trio no mind, at least for now. The Protectrons continued to do their tasks while the Bouncies just ignored the group. Kabus got close, but as the trio moved aside, they found this was just so they could bring the chocolate that was being harvested over to the conveyor belt. [color=92278f]”Well, we’d best start harvesting, before another eldritch cult attacks us again.”[/color] Sectonia said, a bit too gleefully, using her swords to shatter and collect chocolate. [color=SpringGreen]”I think she really likes chocolate?”[/color] jr whispered to Rika, who replied [color=Aqua]”Who wouldn't? This stuff is great“[/color] through a mouthful of it. The two followed the queen’s lead, doing their own labor instead of stealing the fruits of the workers within, which seemed to prevent any kind of hostility erupting between them. The same could not be said of the peppibots, who would occasionally burst into the scene to interrupt their hard work. In one way this turned out to be a boon, as Rika and Jr teamed up to disarm a pair of them of their pizza cutters, and then turned those same cutters on the chocolate, which worked a lot better than jabbing at it with spears. With a bit of sweat and effort, they filled up a multitude of boxes with all sorts of chocolate, from dark to white, and from sea salted to pop rock filled. Which presented them with the daunting issue of going back into carnage land again, till Rika had a suggestion: [color=Aqua]”How about we just go out the window, circle round, and then go in another one this time?“[/color] [color=92278f]”Indeed. It should be much faster. Although we’ve yet to find a way to escape. Either way, I’ll send some antillions out to distract those bots outside before we do some window shopping.”[/color] Sectonia said, doing just that as the group found the window nestled in a moon shaped imprint on the wall. With that done, it wasn’t too difficult for the trio to hop from factory room to factory room, finding all sorts of sweets from fruit flavored gummies, to marshmallows, to various hard candies, some of which were made of honey, ice cream which stayed surprisingly cool inside the pizza boxes that it was put into. Of course not every room was filled with delicious treats. There was a room where they spun liquorice like giant ropes which wasn’t a hit with the queen for one, who declared: [color=92278f]”How is that even supposed to be deemed ‘candy’, it's not even sweet!”[/color] to which Jr agreed while Rika thought that [color=Aqua]”I dunno it seems kind of neat“[/color]. The princess was, however, outnumbered in her vague interest, resulting in them bypassing that room entirely. Eventually, they’d done a complete loop of the outside of the factory, which left the question of how they actually were going to get out. With nothing else for it, they poked their heads out of a sauce manufactory and back into the main room. Within, they saw traces of the destruction they had wrought, but only traces, as the Peppibots where wheeling around what was left of the factory and actively building it back up again, laying out conveyors, ovens, and topping appliers in a whole new complex mess. Above all this, was the one place they hadn’t gone yet: a large glass window overlooking the whole room. With the main area wrecked, there was little preventing the queen from flying up to the top, other than, of course, harassment from the bots. The prince and princess held them at bay, acting as the side mounted miniguns to her transport helicopter impersonation. Then with a smash of the glass, they broke into the overseer’s office. Inside were plush carpates, a mahogany desk, numerous fake health and safety awards, a few bookshelves of unread books, and the man, the myth, the legend, the namesake of the whole facility: Joe Peppibot. Because he looked no different from all the others, Rika promptly shot the robot chef in the head, sending circuits spilling across the floor and his entirely standard spirit that was identical to his many worker drones falling to the floor. Of more interest than the dead factory owner was the massive [url=https://i.imgur.com/kpWSZ1s.gif]stone pillar with a face[/url] just sort of sitting in a corner of the room, minding his own business. [color=SpringGreen]”There’s gotta be, like, a secret button or something in here to open the front gate”[/color] Jr insisted as he made a b-line for the desk, only for the pillar to tiredly inform him that “That’d be me” [color=SpringGreen]”You are? How does that work?”[/color] “Load bearing pillar” he replied, as if that explained everything, and when asked why he was even telling them this he informed them that “Existence is suffering. Also I’m a hive mind so even if you knock off a bunch of me I won’t actually be dead, only suffering less” [color=Aqua]”But don’t you want to keep us stuck here?“[/color] Rika asked, still confused as to why he was giving away this information. “I hate that Pizza face guy. I’d tell you to punch him in the face if you see him, but you don’t want to hang around long enough for him to show up. Trust me” Pillar John concluded, before waiting patiently for them to get it over with. [color=92278f]”Well… I suppose it's about time we got this underway. Get ready to escape you two.”[/color] Sectonia said, not too concerned with giving this Pillar John his death wish. It was a good thing Sectonia had a haste ability to help them escape. The two nodded, and left her to do the honors. When she did, and Piller John fell, Pizza time began. [center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMVFI8HRZLI[/youtube][/center] As soon as it did, alarms started blaring, a number of small wall sections rotated to reveal a 4 minute countdown, and a set of blast doors slammed shut over the shattered window, blocking the way they had entered the room. At the same time, one of the bookshelves slit to the side, caused not by the death, but by a curious Rika having tried to pull the only non dusty one off of the shelf, having been entirely nonplussed by the queen’s execution of the pillar as well. [color=SpringGreen]”Well, I guess that’s our route out of here”[/color] Jr said, before running into the secret passageway. A few seconds later they burst out of another hidden door, and into what turned out to be the onsite power plant for running all of the pizza manufacturing machinery. As with said machinery, the set up was not at all safe, coherent, or efficient. Arcs of lightning lanced from generator to generator, while entire sections of the wall were made up of oversized electrical sockets that shocked anything that came near them. There where a few hoovering [url=https://i.imgur.com/W2Oi41e.png]electro bots[/url] patrolling the area naturally, and could shoot out close range shots of chain lightning from their plug like hands, but once they were in an open space Pizza Time’s other effect came into play. Portals shaped like Piller John’s face started to open around them, spitting out backup enemies such as additional peppibots, fridges bots and fedora wearing weenies (who proceed to just patrol around rather than attack) to try and slow down their escape. [color=92278f]”They are not going to make this easy… Don’t hold back.”[/color] Sectonia said, keeping her use of haste up on the trio so they could blitz through the area as well as they could. Thanks to her pipe of insight, the electricity that hit the trio did a bit of reduced damage, but it was difficult to dodge either way. Add in Sectonia using her own lightning to fry the bots that got in her way, and it was just difficult to even see at times. Plus getting constantly zapped by lightning wasn’t enjoyable at all. It especially wasn’t enjoyable for Jr, who after getting hit once by electricity, had his water cassette-beast form turn conducive, resulting in every single shot of electricity arcing towards his position. In a room as shock filled as this, the prince was promptly engulfed in a blinding flash with the power of several lighting strikes, giving everyone a brief moment of panic before he emerged unscathed , or rather, his actual base form did, while his casset-beast tape now needed manually respooling if he was to use it again. [color=SpringGreen]”Hey you jerks, I was having fun being that big fish lady!”[/color] jr yelled at the electrobot who had zapped him, before leaping at it, and shotgunning it with a blast of flukes caused by a transformed stone cast. The prince hit the ground, twirled his paintbrush and then tossed a pokeball out to summon Mimi atop his shoulder, who started mimicking Sectonia’s chaotic spellcasting to add yet more indiscriminate fire to their stage clearing. As they crashed through the generator room, it occurred to Sectonia that they… didn’t really know the way out from here. They’d need to rush to beat that clock or at least find a spot they were familiar with so they could reach the exit and escape. At least there were these little stopwatches littering their path forward, which seemed to freeze the time momentarily when collected, giving them a bit of extra time. After about a minute of racing around they all suddenly burst out into the main floor of the factory, now down at the bottom of it, rather than up on high with all the machinery. Well. all the working machinery. The floor was presently littered with the jagged and often burning reminders of their first pass through the room. Brush wielding Peppibots paused their work, and went on the attack, while a fresh wave of enemy spawns bolstered their ranks. Jr flicked his paintbrush to splash a streak of electrical goop over one of the brush wielders, short circuiting the unfortunate cleaner before pointing [color=SpringGreen]”over there, I think I see some kind of lobby? That’s gotta lead to the main gates”[/color] while Rika looked over to one side and spied [color=Aqua]”There’s a small little door over there! Maybe it goes to that one we saw before we came in“[/color] Making her choice for the trio, Sectonia pointed at the lobby area. Their plan was to demolish the front gate, so that had to be linked there. [color=SpringGreen]”Then let’s go already! Time to bust out in style!”[/color] Jr called out, before they got to running all over again, as fast as the prince’s stubby little legs could go. Bots were smashed, ice cream slicks leapt over, hot coals danced through and then they busted through a pair of lobby doors. A tv screen faced [url=https://i.imgur.com/S1cSjXB.png]vidbot[/url] secretary screamed as they went bursting through the entry lobby, which had of all things a statue of the god atlas with his face replaced with a smiling pizza. At the other end of the hall was the exit to the courtyard they’d seen when they entered, but said exit was in the middle of being welded shut by a pair of peppibots, who spun upon their entrance to try and turn their welding equipment on the trio. [color=92278f]”This one doesn’t have much taste, for being a pizza.”[/color] Sectonia jabbed as she fired a ring of light at the bots and front door to cut both to shreds. Of course due to its weird pattern and twin rings, this also busted up some of the ugly pizza faced statues. Unfortunately for the weiner guard they had seen before, he happened to be on the other side of the door when it met its fate, and got cut in half as well. The way clear, the trio made their escape out into the now unguarded courtyard, and proceeded to do one last bit of vandalism as they totaled the front gate of the factory that stood in front of the now open door that led back to the tower. With time to spare thanks to Sectonia’s haste and the group’s destructive tendencies, they crossed the finish line, at which point a mechanical hand with a glove at the end reached out and gave them a bit of paper with a letter B on it. [color=SpringGreen]”Huh?”[/color] jr said, as he took the card, looked at it for a few moments before exclaiming [color=SpringGreen]”What is that our score! It gave us a B rank? A B RANK!?”[/color] and then turning right around, absurdly declaring [color=SpringGreen]”Come on, let’s go again! We can do way better than a-”[/color] only for the door behind them to reveal the factory had been destroyed, explosions going off and everything. Seeing Jr. trying to head back in, Sectonia grabbed the young koopa by the scruff of his bandana, saying. [color=92278f]”We have more important things to do.”[/color] She didn’t want him going back into something exploding after all. [color=SpringGreen]”Yeaaaah. Ok. Never mind”[/color] Jr agreed after taking a look at the mess they’d left, spinning right back around and starting to walk away from it like it wasn’t his problem. [color=Aqua]”Awww, now I’ll never know what licorice tastes like!“[/color] Rika complained, as if that was the worst tragedy involved, before going along with him, the trio heading off to go see if they’d actually gotten anything the trolls would like to eat. As they left the door behind, the timer within continued to tick down till it hit zero. Then a certain face arrived on the stage much too late, took one look at the devastation, and then left entirely nonplussed. A moment after that, the door to the level slammed shut for a moment, and when it opened back up the peppibot factory showed not a hint of the devastation that the trio had wrought, the stage reset and ready for another run.