[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5r7OTIh.png[/img]
[b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 4583 (+5) 
[b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 9[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]///////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (42/110)
[b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] Suoh 
[color=Aquamarine]Warp Charges:[/color] 1
[hider=warp locations]
Virgin Victory teleport room
Top of the Split mountain
Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage
Tostarena Town
S.O.U. Building
Seiran Clinic
Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts)
Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel)
Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
[/hider]
[/center]

Minda successfully kept Painwheel from going after the others. Unfortunately she did this via triggering Galeem’s influence, and now she had the nightmare of a woman’s full murderous attention. [color=Aquamarine]”She’s gone mad!”[/color] she proceeded to shout when things took this inevitable turn, as one last hurrah for her blatant ruse, while pulling her darknut out of a portal beside her. Luckily, some extra help came in the form of Roxas, who locked Painwheel down under a barrage of lightning bolts. The berserker crouched down and blocked them, angrily simmering while her foes healed up prepared their summons.

When Burn Rooster attacked though, she took the fight to him. She sprang up and snatched him out of the air with her Buer Reaper command grab, reeling the reploid into her grasp. When they hit the floor Painwheel slammed him against it, cracking the tile, then used Gae Bolga to grow a gruesome bloody spike for the delivery of a ruthless People’s Elbow. Just as Roxas finished speaking, the transferred damage caught him unawares, nailing him with an agonizing piercing sensation to the chest–enough to keep him out of commission for a few moments at least.

As Painwheel turned toward her for another Pinion Dash, Midna held her spear and single sword to her chest and filling them with a spark of power while she sheltered. She then promptly unleashed it upon Painwheel as the woman came charging in with her Buer Drive spinning alongside her. She took a step forwards before bringing the heavy cleaver down in a chop that pulled a bolt of lighting from the air and down towards her foe, while at the same time she thrust the butt of the spear forwards, causing a brief beam of electricity to zap forwards.

[color=Aquamarine]”What a shock, she needs to be stopped”[/color] 

Before Painwheel’s Pinion Dash could run Midna over and dice her up, a lightning bolt stuffed it, causing the berserker to slide to a stop. As the dust flew she looked up to see the cleaver descend, and with a snarl she crouched down on all fours to brace herself beneath the Buer Drive. Metal met metal in a terrific impact, but despite its impressive weight the oversized machete did not cut through. Instead it caught against the Buer Drive’s blades, and even as enough electricity surged through Painwheel’s body to make her emaciated skin smoke, she did not relent. Instead the power of Hatred Install pulsed through her, its purple tint pushing her well beyond mortal limits, and her eyes blazed with rage. Her blades realigned and snapped shut around the cleaver like the teeth of a bear trap, two on each side, and began to squeeze. 

“RrrrrrrrAAAAAAGH!” 

With a horrible noise the blade shattered into a dozen big, jagged pieces As the deadly fragments showered down Painwheel span up her Buer Drive once more, and with the giant sawblade held diagonally as an offensive shield, she began to crawl toward Midna.

Midna had already abandoned the blade by the time it shattered, giving her just enough time to bring her second set of arms up to block her body, the magical limbs bearing the brunt of the shards, though she still was left with several actual cuts through her mask and helm ensured her face remained unblemished by blood.

[color=Aquamarine]”Even in death you annoy me!”[/color] the princess cursed the man the shoddy blade had been made out of as she stepped back, and her knight stepped forwards.

As the princess reinforced the magic of her false arms behind its guard, the darknut swept the flat of its blade around in a low strike, aiming to strike the spinning shield side on rather than head on. That blade boasted far more weight and destructive power than Zanzo’s cleaver, so the same stunt wouldn’t work again. When it swept in Painwheel took a different approach–she sprang off the ground and into the air, easily leaping over the mutant Darknut’s mighty but slow attack. Flying toward Midna, the berserker bent forward and extended spikes from the soles of her feet into the top of her outstretched Buer Drive. [url=https://i.imgur.com/bGG8ZZx.png]Tortured Rose[/url] rained down a shower of disorienting sparks as the blades descended. 

[color=Aquamarine]”What the-”[/color] as her light sensitive vision was assaulted by the shower of sparks. In a blind response she summoned all 4 of her chillfos strikers around her, and having the frozen undead raise their spears up above her, the shafts crossing over to form a tank trap like X above her head as she ducked, and prepared to dodge based on the sound of the blade impacting with her conjured defenses, eyes clenched shut to guard them from more flashes. 

While their summoner backed off, the Chilfos held firm. Painwheel’s blade cut their ice lances into ice cubes, but together the four of them managed to push her off, and right away they began to regrow their lances. Painwheel dashed in and they rallied together to defend again, but this time the berserker reached out with Buer Reaper, using her blades like a claw to drag the two central Chilfos into her waiting grasp. Her hands clenched around their heads and she smashed them into the ground, communicating a burst of concussive injury to Midna as the Chilfos strikers timed out and disappeared

At that moment though, purple electricity sparked along Painwheel’s body, and she flinched with a pained yelp. Brain Drain’s psychic voice reached out to reprimand her. [i]”Painwheel, stop this instant,[/i] he commanded. [i]”This one’s not your enemy.”[/i] When the berserker clawed at the air in protest, though, his tone became more resigned. [i]”Urgh, but they’ve both been triggered…the die is already cast.”[/i]

[color=Aquamarine]”goddesses, my head”[/color] the princess hissed in complaint as her just returning vision swirled from the transmitted blunt force trauma to the head. She at least had the darknut in between her and the uncontrollable puppet, and while that might have helped much last time, it did mean the knight itself was in the perfect position post 180 degree pivot to slam forwards with a shield bash while Painwheel was in the midst of being electrocuted. 

Her summon landed a clean hit, knocking Painwheel away and onto her back. On landing, however, she performed a ground tech and flipped onto her feet using the Buer Drive as a springboard. She shook her head with a growl, her anger quickly resurfacing as her red-hot glare flashed between Midna and the Darknut. That revenant knight would keep pestering her until it was dealt with, but without vitals it would only succumb to structural damage. As Midna vied to recover, Painwheel revved up her Buer Drive and leaped forward, taking to the air like a miniature helicopter with thrice the maneuverability.

She closed in on the Darknut, planning to pick apart its armor piece by piece if she had to. As she did, Brain Drain made his move. [i]”Enough. This sideshow must end,”[/i] he declared, vivid pink psychic energy swelling as he hovered forward. [i]”By any means necessary.”[/i] A brilliant, rippling beam blazed forward from his skull case, slamming into the Darknut’s chest and applying a boatload of crushing force.

[color=Aquamarine]”Son of a-”[/color] Minda began to curse, before biting it down and reacting to this unexpected development by opening a portal beneath the darknut and warping it back to her home realm before it was entirely destroyed. As it was, she wasn’t getting any more use out of it without application of a smithing hammer and a whole lot of calcium.

Still, even with her losses and expenditures, she wasn’t close to being out of minions yet, the princess calling out [color=Aquamarine]”Initiates! Vibrava!”[/color] as she summoned yet more forces.

On the ground, her trio of psychic strikers took cover behind parts of the central machinery, before forming spears of psychic energy and hurling them at Brain Drain. The princess, still slightly concussed, charged forwards as her minions fired upon the psychic director, declaring 
[color=Aquamarine]”More like this freakshow must end”[/color] before twirling her spear in front of her using all 4 hands, fanning a blast of summoned singing sand ahead of her.

When a new volley of projectiles flew his way Brain Drain went on defense, sheltering behind a barrier of psychic energy, but he grew irate the moment he realized he was under attack by such amateur psionics. [i]”You dare confront me with such feeble minds?”[/i] He could not put them in their place, however, with Midna attacking. Her initiates would soon time out, but the Twilight Princess herself unleashed a sandstorm. As it reached Brain Drain he brought his hand down, using his telekinesis to part the flurry to either side. His brain charged up again, poised to cut through the chaos with another psychic beam.

Meanwhile, in the sky, Midna’s Vibrava took to the air on buzzing wings, and began to harass the propeller propelled Painwheel with blasts of its fiery, and potentially paralyzing, purple dragon breath. 

In the Vibrava Painwheel found a match for her aerial mobility, but the two weren’t destined to have a dogfight. Unlike her enemy, the girl lacked ranged attacks, and her finite flight would be cut off when she executed any aerial attacks. In a bid to end this quickly she threw herself at the Vibrava with a wild dive, but the bug managed to evade and scorch her with Dragon Breath. With a frustrated snarl she went down. When one burst of flame left her paralyzed, it got the chance to lend another couple attacks, building its confidence. Still, Painwheel wouldn’t be dissuaded. One hit was all she needed. The moment her paralysis wore off, she leaped into the air. Though she couldn’t attack with her Buer Drive without falling, the berserker had other means. With an agonized shriek she ejected a dozen skewers from within her body, most several times longer than herself. Once her [url=https://i.imgur.com/v4Oin4A.png]Buer Thresher[/url] Blockbuster dug in, the retracting barbs would bring her foe right into cutting range.

Unable to escape from the rising skewers, instead went all in, flapping its wings backwards once and then keeping them folded to its body, divebombing its 1 meter long form into the thorns. With its tail fins it desperately tried to weave its way past as many as it could, while its jaws became suffused with a dark energy in a hope that it could deliver a devastating crunch to its foe before she could rearrange herself back into fighting form.  

As the insect closed the distance to sink its teeth in, a fresh crop of skewers burst out from beneath the mask on Painwheel’s face. Surrounded by the inky blood lances, the Vibrava had nowhere to go, and the barbs pierced its carapace. With her quarry stuck like meat on a spit roast, Painwheel brought down her Buer Drive, carving a grisly wound across the insect’s head and all the way down its front. The next moment both hit the ground, but while the Vibrava lay defeated, and promptly dropped into a portal that opened beneath it, Painwheel forced herself back up off the floor. Murky blood dripping off her body from the recoil damage, she began to pop her dislocated joints back into their sockets in order to rejoin the fight.

Back in said fight, Midna’s response to the impending psychic blast was twofold. First she squeezed a free hand, causing the deflected sand to rise up and come at the man again from both sides inorder to wrap the psychic in a swirling sandtomb. Then she kicked herself into the air, pivoting once and transferring a great deal of her charg’s momentum into a spear toss of her own, the butt off the electrified weapon sailing fourth to bludgeon the psychic in the gut.

To Midna, it looked like she’d struck home. Through the whirlwind of sand she could see Brain Drain’s form outlined in pink psychic energy, seemingly doubled over from the kind of body blow that could churn one’s guts and empty one’s lungs. The rhythmic pulse of his brain in its casing offered a clear target, however briefly.

Lacking in the skill or desire to land a lethal headshot, so instead of opting to pull out her pistol she instead resumed her charge, empty hands now bearing dragon claws.  Rather than just let him recover however, she portaling in on of her dwindling stock of wooden supply crate she’s stolen off the back of a truck, and then proceeded to grab it with her shadow hand, before whipping it around her head and launching it at the Brainiac to keep him off balance.

The projectile flew at the silhouette, but rather than smashing into it, it somehow passed straight through. As the sandstorm dwindled, Midna could see that her target wasn’t Brain Drain at all–merely a psychic projection of himself, left behind as a decoy while the real Brain Drain flew under the cover of the sandstorm. How could one churn the guts or knock the wind from the lungs of a robot, after all? When she realized this and scanned the area, she found the real director floating up by the ceiling, his hand raised. [i]”What’s yours,”[/i] he said, forming a dozen psychic spears just like the ones her Initiates used. [i]”Is mind.”[/i] With a wave of his hand, the spears rained down. At the same time, Painwheel began to approach Midna, quickly closing the distance with her Buer Drive at the ready.

In response the princess summoned Skywave beside her, the exosuit launching itself skywards in an artful pirouette, one that carried the princess up into the air alongside her, the pair rising up just in time to avoid the spears raining down while she taunted [color=Aquamarine]”No thanks, you can keep them!”[/color] There was a slight issue in that the exosuit vanished the moment their rise ended, Midna could not fly any more after all, but instead of plunging back down into the awaiting claw of Painwheel the princess thrust her shadow hand up from her helm, and sunk its dragon clawed fingers into the ceiling. Then she thrust herself forwards with the limb, flinging herself towards the psychic in a flying kick.

When Midna’s dug her dragon clawed feet into the class exterior of the Brainframe tank, causing cracks to spread across its surface and a malodorous chemical fluid to drip from the gaps, Brain Drain was stunned. His sheer astonishment at the pointless damage to something to so important made him an easy target for her kick. His robotic body might be state-of-the-art, but it wasn’t meant for combat. His levitation failed and he flew down toward the ground, landing hard on his back. The jarring impact left his mind reeling, which sent feedback into Painwheel’s, too. “Uuuurgh!” she groaned, staggered but momentarily free of Brain Drain’s hooks.

Though he hadn’t wanted to fight at all, the psychic director suddenly found himself in a bad position, and unfortunately he couldn’t back down, either. Without a word he focused on Midna, but he realized that he couldn’t shoot a beam at her without risking another potentially disastrous hit on the Brainframe. With her too far away to attack her mind directly, his options were limited. [i]”Doctor. Assist me,”[/i] he called out as he attempted to rise.

As it happened, the Doctor was already waiting outside. The doors that led back to the operating room were pushed open, and the inhuman physician peeked his abominable head down from the top of the doorframe. From there however, he went no further. A colleague of Brain Drain’s he might be, but a fighter he was not. He disappeared again and crawled back down the hallway’s ceiling, the telltale rumble of his passage quickly fading away. With no other alternative, Brain Drain quickly reached out to seize control of Painwheel again.

[color=Aquamarine]”Oh, so he thinks we can take him. Good to know”[/color] Midna commented about the actions of the Doctor, as she dropped to the floor, before lunging towards the rising Painwheel with shadow hand outstretched to snatch her up in her grasp and then hurl her nice and far away.

As she approached, a shadowy phantom of Brain Drain appeared behind Painwheel, and purple sparks goaded her into action. When Midna grabbed hold she attempted to fling Painwheel away, but the girl herself did not let go, instead clutching the shadow hand’s fingers while her Buer Drive began to spin. The blades cut apart the princess’s grasp, and Painwheel dropped to the floor a few meters away rather than a few dozen. She dawdled for just a moment as a psychic beam flew in from Brain Drain in an attempt to get a cheap shot on Midna, but the next moment the berserker went on the offensive again, performing an empty safe jump and then going low with a sawblade sweep. 

Minda responded by summoning Roadblock in between herself and the other woman, the striker raising its massive barrier to block the hit, and followed up its black with a rocket bash. Unfortunately she was unable to help with the follow up, as she was sent stumbling by the cheap shot psychic blast from the side.

She growled in frustration as she caught herself, as much exasperated as she was fearful of how this two on one fight was going, which prompted her to shout out [color=Aquamarine]”If you could hurry it up over there, I could use a hand over here!”[/color] intending to catch the ear of her fellow seekers, but unintentionally reaching those of a different set of help.

Yuito and Hanabi, having remained on the periphery of the fights with Dexio and Sina to render their assistance if it looked like anyone needed it, heard Midna’s call for aid and replied immediately. “On my way!” the young man called back, using his Psychokinesis to draw his sword as he led the charge through the room. Hanabi followed in his footsteps with a determined look on her face, her staff held at the ready and ignited with Pyrokinetic flames.

Though Roadblock managed to knock Painwheel askew with its shield bash, its disappearance the next moment gave her a clear shot to bombard Midna with Gae Bolga stingers, piercing her skin and even nailing one foot to the floor with the bloody spikes. Before her Buer Drive could start carving, Yutio intercepted it with his blade like a stick through a bicycle wheel, halting its spin and then pinning the blades against the floor with a deft twist. Painwheel immediately unhooked the Buer Drive and rounded on Yuito with a fresh burst of stingers, but Hanabi got in the way and blocked them with a spin of her staff. When Painwheel charged in and seized Hanabi’s guard with a command grab, Yuito was on hand to break his friend free with a Psychokinesis-propelled tub, knocking the berserker down in a blast of water.

He followed up with a flurry of slashes against Painwheel’s guard, his sword leaving his hand with every other stroke, until the poor girl caught him with [url=https://i.imgur.com/afLTSv5.png]Disfigure[/url] and followed up the quadruple stab with a punishing Malice Clover sweep. As he fell, she turned herself upside down and suspended herself off the ground with long spikes from her hands and feet, her screaming sawblade dangling beneath her like a [url=https://i.imgur.com/3BLk211.png]lawn mower from hell[/url]. “DEATH CRAAAWL!” In the nick of time, however, Yuito saved himself by borrowing Gemma’s Sclerokinesis. As he withstood the vicious assault, Hanabi ran in behind him and pole-vaulted up to plant both feet in Painwheel’s face in an impressive dropkick. As she staggered, Yuito jumped up for an air combo infused with Hanabi’s fire, finishing with a flourish of blades slashes followed by an exploding blade plunge.

It looked like they had Painwheel under control, which meant that Midna could focus on Brain Drain. Sensing her coming, the psychic director opened fire with lasers to try and cut her down before she could reach him.

The princess responded by summoning her last healthy minion (that would fit in the room) to her side and then unleashed it with a command of [color=Aquamarine]”Sic him”[/color] 

The wolfos burst forwards, weaving between lasers and then ducking low to avoid one final desperate blast aimed at it. It slipped directly under the hovering psychic entity, before leaping up, grabbing the back of his coat and dragging him down to the ground, and then shaking him violently to stop him from blasting its master.

Said master approached as swiftly as she could, carrying with her her mace-like sun on a stick, its black metal and orange orb crackling with energy, declaring that it was [color=Aquamarine]”Time to end this”[/color] 

Brain Drain pulled his right hand back, extending lethal-looking needles from his robotic fingertips. [i]“This is far from over.”[/i]

Absurdly, the princess’ response was to lunge forwards with her own hand, the princess grabbing the offending arm and suffering the expected results. Needles sunk into her wrist, digging deep … and finding not flesh, blood, or, importantly, nerves, but instead entirely alien and incompatible magic. 

[color=Aquamarine]”All those brains and you don’t know when to give up”[/color] she told him as she leaned in close inorder grabbed his other hand in much the same way, before lightly thrusting the sun on a stick forwards, pressing it against his chin, and then unloading its charge. Electricity flowed freely, arching through his head, and yet rather than resounding with thunder, the lighting simply buzzed angrily, unloading just enough power to knock the man’s only remaining flesh unconscious without frying the machine keeping it alive. 

She pulled the stick back once he was out, and carefully lowered him down to the ground, and turned to take in the fight her reinforcement where in, and to say it was a mess was an understatement. Painwheel was very much on the back foot due to being outnumbered, but the chaotic and brutal fighter had made the psychics attacking her pay with blood for every drop they were getting out of her, and she seemed to have far more to spare than they did.

Upon seeing this Midna commanded her wolfos to [color=Aquamarine]”Fetch!”[/color] something and then began striding towards the battle, the frantic fight having taken enough out of her that she couldn’t afford to run back there again. 

[color=Aquamarine]”Initiates! Roots!”[/color] she commanded as she approached, summoning her hooded psychic minions to her side again, and having them unleash their psychic foliage on painwheel. The saw-backed woman refused to be bound by anyone else however, slashing at and into the purple vines rising up to bind her, yet it was enough of a distraction to let the two psychics get their own hits in, sending the fighter sprawling.

[color=Aquamarine]”Thanks for your aid, but you’ve done enough! Back up and I’ll end this!”[/color] Midna shouted to them as Painwheel readied to retaliate. They moved to comply, clutching wounds as they did. Yet in that same moment Painwheel moved to repay them for her latest injuries, only for her to be struck by one of Midna’s shoddy cleavers, the princess having quickdrawn and hurled the blade in a flash. It did next to no harm, but it did get her attention, the taunted berzerker turning her focus to Minda right as the princess received her fetched spear from her wolfos minion, who she offering it the faint praise of [color=Aquamarine]”Good thing”[/color]

The princess then held the weapon to her chest, charging it and the sun on a stick with power while her final hand made a ‘come at me’ motion and verbally taunting her foe with [color=Aquamarine]”I already took down your master, now come and fall to me as well”[/color]

Painwheel obliged, bellowing a rage-filled battle cry and bursting forwards with furious speed, before short hopping and using the same Buer Thresher that had taken down her Vibrava, unleashing her own dark vines on the princess for some ironic turnaround.

In response, the princess raised her spear to guard her, but rather than a passive block she twirled it around, lighting arching from one end to the other, forging a shield of lighting that blasted away the vines trying to grapple her, a shocking mirror to Painwhee’s own defense. Then she flicked the spear to a stop, holding it close to recycle a bit of power into it, and at the same time thrusting the sun on a stick forwards, launching a lighting bolt that slammed the flying Painwheel back and knocking her down.

[color=Aquamarine]”Stay down if you know what’s good for you. I really don’t want to do this”[/color] 

The Galeeming fighter ignored this of course, yet after taking so much punishment over the course of the fight from 6 separate combatants, and having to reconstitute her form from her failed grapple, the berzerker was slower to rise from this bolt than she had the one Midna had used in her opening. Her wolfos pounced at this moment, boldly slamming into her to knock her further off balance (and then escaping into a portal when she tried to retaliate) giving the princess the time to surge forwards with her remaining stamina, in order to drive the butt of her spear against painwheel’s spine and then unleashing its remaining lighting discreetly into it. 

Brain brain’s pawn convulsed under Minda’s emulation of his punishment system, and then when the charge ran dry she thrust the sun on a stick in its place, while powering back up the spear. It was brutal, she, frankly, the princess hated it, but eventually, with enough charges of lighting delivered, Painwheel went the same way of her puppetmaster, blacking out under the far more intense stun prodding.

The princess was left panting after the exertion, her magical set of arms collapsing and dropping her stun on a stick as she put the butt of her spear to the ground and used it for support, blood and sweat dripping from her body.

Despite this, she forced herself to move forwards, telling the psychics to [color=Aquamarine]”Keep an eye on them incase they wake up”[/color] and then moving to either check on or get medical help from Roxas, whichever was appropriate given the recoil he’d taken earlier while trying to protect her.

[hr]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 765 (+2)
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (290/120)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (175/120)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (167/120)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (98/80)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Under - Termite Kingdom Ruins
[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]

While a fair amount of the seekers stayed below and engaged the organization member in a conversation that was equally enlightening and frustrating, Rika forged ahead of them, rising up and up and up with successive boosts. In doing so she discovered that the accent wasn’t going to be quite as active hostiles free as their descent.

The ousted wasp horde had been through here, a few of their number still lingering behind due to either crippling wounds or stubbornness, and in doing so the buzzing mass had stirred up the native threats. Most notable and nasty of these among these were the triple acid shot firing [url=https://i.imgur.com/NzG4nVn.png]Primal Aspids[/url] that where a pain on their own, but so much worse when combined with [url=https://i.imgur.com/ysnaH5O.png]artcher bugs[/url] who had uncanny aim when it came to hitting moving targets. Movement that the Aspids more or less forced with their spread of projectiles, creating quite the dangerous combination.

While Rika herself could slow their shots with her gaze, and got to a chance to try out her new corruption cannons on live targets, Bowser was having far more hellish time, scales and shell ending up covered in numerous acid burns and melted holes as they ate away at his armor.

[color=FD0000]”Buzz off you lousy bugs!”[/color] he roared in frustration at them, as he tried and failed to pick off the nimble fliers with his battleship guns and slow fireballs.

It would have been quite an embarrassing end, or at least an embarrassing state to arrive at the top of the climb in, being slowly whittled away by annoying bugs, but fortunately salvation arrived from below with time to spare, heralded by the sound of rocketry.

Jr, unintentionally aping the movement strategy of a bunch of determination fueled [url=https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/688130/extras/MPgifsRGB.gif?t=1683138632]cave men[/url], had in a fit of mad science welded rockets to the bottom of a pogostick, a strategy that had worked surprisingly well.  He bounced off of clouds in much the same way as the creature they had been made for using the actual pogostick, and if he ever missed, he fired up one of the zonia rockets he’d strapped to it, blasting him back up and giving him a second shot at landing on the missed platforms. 

This did make it a bit difficult to stop, it had to be said, but once he did the prince pulled his paintbrush off his back where he’d pinned it down using his bandolier and duffle bag straps, and used it to restore his papa to full Hp. In doing so they found out what his new vines could do, the full restoring Benediction massively fueling their growth, and giving the king a mass of them to use as green thorny armor, protecting his actual body from acid blasts.

He still couldn't really hit them, mind, but Jr’s noisy catching up got Rika’s attention in a way that Bowser had stubbornly refused to do, and so she came to lend them her far more swift and accurate firepower. Not to be outdone, Jr tried to use his new ferromancy to launch knives and spines from his arm even as he bounced up the clouds, but this proved to be pretty ineffective due to the obvious issue of aiming like this. 

Still, quantity had a quality all of its own, and so he did manage to piece the odd wing or eyeball with one in every few dozen launched metal shards, which helped a bit and always got a cheer from the prince.

Working together now, the royals of the troop got to the top just in time for the fliers to catch up, something that put an end to the queen and mage’s conversation before Kamek found himself unable to explain the hole in one of his stories that avoiding explaining the exact nature of the Chaos heart and its full capabilities to a fellow villain was creating. 

Jr was a little peeved about how Kamek had “cheated” and then even went on to claim he was the only one who had really played by the rules laid out by the green hopping thing, but Kamek managed to derail that mini tantrum by relaying a quick summary of what they had found out from this latest organization member.

[color=FD0000]”Ha, yeah, knew they were bad guys. No goody two shoes dresses like that, that is for sure”[/color] Bowser laughed, and then grinned at his kin as he said simply that [color=FD0000]”and, well, we all know how we do at the end of bad guy team ups, yeah?”[/color] 

The two koopas got it of course, but Rika had to be quietly filled in by Kamek: after much much much experience, Bowser had finally learned one simple thing about working with other villains. In order to avoid being stabbed in the back by your former ally, all you had to do was be the one who stabbed first.