[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img] [h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,901 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 13 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (219/130) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 13 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////// (107/130) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////////////////// (86/130) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////// (70/90) [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] As the troop was organizing the key drop offs from the top floor and not being particularly subtle with their chatter there came a banging from one of the cells right next to them. Five heads (Mimi had been brought out to help out) turned towards the sound, before they all traded glances. [color=FD0000]”I mean. Only one of the people that got let out where crazy”[/color] Bowser pointed out from what they’d seen/heard from their vantage point [color=FD0000]”and the other two were alright, that’s, something like, 90% chance whoever's in there is fine and won’t try to kill us like the one Sectonia got”[/color] [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Sixty six point six recurring percent your mathmaticalness”[/color] Kamek raised an index finger to correct, during which Bowser plucked a key from the mage was holding onto and headed for the door. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Wait! Sire!”[/color] Kamek called after him, while Rika asked [color=Aqua]”Why are we using a key to let someone out?”[/color] not really understanding the altruism of the situation, while Jr just said for them to [color=SpringGreen]”get ready[/color] as he started forming an iron barricade to use for cover. There was a click as Bowser undid the lock, followed by one more bang on the door as the [url=https://i.imgur.com/VUHoKhA.jpg]occupant[/url] came careening out of it surrounded with magical power and with her fist outstretched before her. Bowser was cleanly smashed to the side by the woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs, while Kamek yelped in surprise as he took to the open air above the central shaft and Rika leapt to the side, leaving Jr behind his shield still in her path. Vi, which was presumably her name going by the tattoo under her eye, proceeded to cleanly blow through the iron and into the prince, who was launched up into the air. Then as he came down she slammed another punch into him, sending him sailing over the banister and down into the central shaft. With another cry Kamek swooped after the prince, leaving the king and princess to face the madwoman together. Vi, who had finished screaming and was now laughing maniacally and shouting something about “I get it now Jinx!”, was now encased in some kind of energy barrier, which cleanly absorbed Rika’s first spear thrust. In response to the failed strike pivoted, and bodily grabbed the head of the spear with her gauntlet, yanking it from the ship girl's hands. The blade promptly teleported out of Vi’s hands and into Rika’s again, but madness was a great vaccination against surprise and so the woman simply did what she did best, and drove a regular punch towards the princess. In response Rika brought up both her hullclaws and spear to block, only for the impact with them to send a shockwave pulsing forwards, battering her back. The followup punch did the same and managed to bring down her energy shielding and dent the backs of the claws, but at that point Rika had enough of her wits about her to retaliate, and did so by firing her rigging mounted disruptions into her foe at point blank range. They knocked down whatever magic barrier was protecting the madwoman down, punching straight through and sticking to her, sapping her strength, and making the third blow she landed a little bit weaker. Despite said weaker punch, Vi seemed to draw power from it, her fourth punch coming in with close to half the delay that there had been between the last. It was rather fortunate that she wasn’t thinking straight enough to do anything but wail on the guarding shipgirl however, because it meant Bowser had plenty of time to recover and come charging into the fight at last with a roar. Said roar alerted Vi to his coming of course, and so she pivoted, pulled back a fist, seemed to start charging it, and then, before Rika could drop her guard and go on the attack, went flying back towards the king in much the same way she’d come flying out the door. Running on all fours as he was, the king’s head was right in the way, and so he got a nasty smash to the face as Vi knocked him into the air and into the ceiling, before pivoting and starting to try and give him a beat down as well. She got a nice hit in with her follow up, but when her third came Bower, snaring past a cracked tusk, was up and ready to take it. Forming a boxer’s guard he blocked the hit, and then swung one of his own, only for Vi to step out of the way and jab at him again. Furious, the king lashed out with the vines from his shell, thorned tendrils tearing and zapping at Vi, only for her to deliver another shockwave punch that obliterated them all in a single strike. She was quite the foe it seemed, but sadly for her, or perhaps thankfully given the loss of her mind, she was outnumbered. Rika entered the fray right after the vine blasting strike, becoming a hammer to the anvil that was Bowser himself. Her spear jabbed forwards, and then flipped around, inverted in the blink of an eye so she could bring the helbard like serrated spine up in an under swing of a chop. Bleeding, Vi stumbled back, and then got absolutely anvilled when Bowser drove a kinetic strike module empowered punch straight into her, sending her tumbling clear across half of the upper floor. She still got up again, snarling at them thro bloodied teeth, which was exactly the moment that Kamek, with Jr hanging from the bottom of his broom, floated back into view. Her gaze flicked to them and then, despite (or perhaps because of) them still floating above the drop to the bottom of the prison, she reeled back a punch. Rather than charging up any power however, an ethereal connecting line lashed out and linked her to the dangling prince, at which point she started flying through the air straight towards them, following that guiding line. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh dear”[/color] Kamek exclaimed as Jr instead yelled [color=SpringGreen]”Fire everything!”[/color] The prince immediately launched a hail of metal shards from his ferromancy arm, as well as a swarm of strikers consisting of the toothy Flukefey and clever armed Vespikan, while Mimi hurled an electroball but all of this was blown aside by the unstoppable Vi, no matter how much it hurt her to do so. She also sailed clean through an explosion caused by a convergence of 4 of Kamek’s dark magic beams, and a hail of fire from Bowser’s shoulder cannons. Then, as she was just moments from crashing into the floating pair and to send both plummeting down Rika surged forwards, in her own mad charge that saw her leap off the spiked banister around the pit and to then leap forwards, firing her maneuvering thrusters and intercepting Vi mid air, driving her spear directly into the fast but predictably moving woman’s throat. She burst into ash that fell alongside Rika for half a heartbeat before she smacked into the abdomen of her Vespikan Queen striker when she summoned it below her. She grabbed on with both hands, letting her spear fall away down below. She only had scant seconds before it timed out, but in that time a paintbrush was lowered down to her by jr, onto which the princess grabbed. She also took the liberty of grabbing Vi’s falling spirit while she was at it. Up above Bowser ripped up the banister to the central shaft, reached out, and grabbed Kamek’s hand, before effortlessly hauling his family back to safety. They all then sprawled onto the solid ground, catching their breath for a moment, before quickly slipping into conversation about what had just gone down [color=SpringGreen]”Let’s actually set up before we do that again next time”[/color] Jr suggested while is papa awkwardly scratch the back of his head, [color=SpringGreen]”You know, disposable minions at the front, rest of us spread out, that kinda thing”[/color] Rika meanwhile was more interested in the result, asking [color=Aqua]”So, who’s going to use this anyway?”[/color] [color=FD0000]”You took her down, you can have her”[/color] Bowser decided for everyone, after which Rika decided [color=Aqua]”I like how she looks, so I think I’ll just use it as it is, no snacktivator”[/color] and then popping it into her chest [hider=Rika fusion] Appearance change: Fusing with [url=https://i.imgur.com/RVdu3WK.jpg]Vi[/url] has caused Rika’s Brachydios gauntlets have transformed into a pair of giant mechanical hands, which feature the brute wyvern’s visage on the back of their palms (in a similar style to the jade lions on [url=https://i.imgur.com/MdnzU6i.jpg]this skin[/url]) while still sporting both horns sticking out from their foreheads. The left gauntlet has absorbed the grizco blaster, no longer requiring the awkward pipes from the horn to get a supply of explosive goop, and can now fire the ink blasts from a barrel in the palm. The grappling hook has also moved over here, and now sits on the back of the gauntlet’s palm. On the right, her rifle has also moved into the palm, and sports a rotating Gatling style barrel the same size as the grizco blaster’s one. The chainsaw bayonet now runs along the back of her gauntlet’s hand and in between the middle knuckles, giving her punches from that hand some extra bite during and after impact. For the rest of her body, Rika’s top half is now entirely human, apart from her mismatched horns which are now rather small and stubby, while retaining the lower scally half from rider and beast. Her hair has turned a light pink with blue tips, and has lengthened in the top and back and shortened on the side, giving her a messy pixie cut beneath her helmet. The letters RI are tattooed beneath her left eye. Her arm armor has evolved into a pair of dark steel pauldrons, and she has gained two large plates of the same style protecting her thighs. Personality wise Rika has gotten more loud and self confident again, returning her to more or less a neutral volume/assertiveness level over all, as well as leaving her more impulsive. Power: Vault Breaker: Rika can now charge her gauntlets with mana, which she can then use to unleash a punch that flings her forwards at breakneck speed, smashing foes that she collides with aside or even straight up into the air. The charge can be held for a maximum of 4 seconds, the first 1.25 of which increase the range, strength and speed of the punch. If the maximum time is eclipsed, the mana is forcibly vented to prevent damage to the gauntlet. Weakness: Hexed-tech: Rika’s gauntlets really weren't designed to work with mana, and the overlapping energy systems unfortunately interfere with each other. If a gauntlet is used to perform a mana expending ability, it (and anything installed on it) will subsequently shut down for two seconds as the technology recovers from having magic run through it. [/hider] [color=Aqua]”Huh. Guess I got some more armor”[/color] she noted as she examined her body, before doing a few practice punches, not finding anything different and then wondering [color=Aqua]”Huh, I wonder what it did?”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”Uh, sis, check out your gauntlets”[/color] which got another [color=Aqua]”Huh,”[/color] then and [color=Aqua]”oh yeah!”[/color] and finally an [color=Aqua]”Oh. Wow”[/color] as she pulled them up front, and took in the mechanical mitts she was now equipped with. [color=Aqua]”That is just … perfect!”[/color] she declared, giggling with glee as she slipped them on, having them lock smoothly in place, and then flexing her new hands. Mechanical digits perfectly articulated to her whims, one of the first of which was booping her papa on the snoot. Her second was examining the twin guns now set into the gaunlet’s palms, careful to not actually point them at herself, and then finally summoning her spear from down below into her mecha hands, and twirling it around with masterful dexterity. [color=Aqua]”Ok, I totally see why unlocking that door was a good idea now”[/color] she said, quite clearly delighted with her transformation. While Bowser of all people tried, badly, to explain why you should help people (his instinct to do so was not his own after all) Jr gave the gauntlets an inspection, equally impressed at what had happened to them. [color=SpringGreen]”Way better than all my hacks I gotta admit, though there is one flaw, and that’s that you can't really use that feather fall rune any more, right?”[/color] [color=Aqua]”Oh, yeah, shoot. Guess not”[/color] Rika replied, spirits dampened a bit, but Jr was already prepared to pick them back up, becking her to give her both a hand and the rune, before he used his ferromancy to simply weld it to the bottom of her ;eft palm in a place where she could squeeze down on it using a single massive mechanical pinky. Rika enthusiastically declared this [color=Aqua]”Neat!”[/color] before saying that [color=Aqua]”This’ll make going down the central shaft way easier!”[/color] This inevitably got her some questions, to which her answer was simply [color=Aqua]”It’s faster than using the stairs, plus we won’t have to worry about those tough flailing guys we saw Nadia handle. So it's a good way to catch up with the others”[/color] With that there was little argument to be made, but based on the previous event Jr did manage to sit his papa down for a few moments so they could hash out a strategy. A few moments after that, they sent down one of Kamek’s wisps to do some recon. As it passed the fourth layer it attracted the attention of a few bishops, who floated out into the central shaft. They were promptly showered with acid from Bowser’s shoulder cannons, metal spikes from Jr, fireballs from Kamek, and Disruption cannon globs from Rika, against which they had little defense. The wisp then floated on down further to the third floor, at which point it was promptly blasted by half a dozen glowing magic missiles fired by the beaked mind flayers roaming those halls. They got to stew in satisfaction at having seen two foes off now for a few moments, before all hell descended upon their layer. First came a squad of five shadow clones of Jr, accompanied by flukfey and Vespikan berserker strikers who swarmed the closet mind flayer. It blasted several of them with a shocking orb as they came in, causing a brief shout of panic from on high as the paralyzing feedback hit jr, but the rest kept going and in moments teeth by the dozens, cleavers, and clown car boxing gloves where laying into it, overwhelming it with both numbers and strength. A moment later, Kamek dropped into view, and promptly quad lasered a second flayer who had come in response to the frantic ringing and then silence caused by the attack upon and then death of the first. A third was sicked by the remaining jr clones as the real thing came sliding down using the Grapple Worm as a zipline down from floor 5. Rika floated down with her rune to land next to him as the prince reached down and formed a platform of iron sticking out of the closest support pillar, one that allowed Bowser, who had been using his Meowser form to cat scratch down said piller, to stop his descent and step into the room. [color=FD0000]”Smooth work”[/color] the king complimented his son, but the prince replied [color=SpringGreen]”We still got stuff to do, so let’s deal with the rest of these squid faced guys already!”[/color] Rika was already ahead of him, reeling back a gauntlet and then slamming forwards in exactly the same way Vi had, smashing a mind flayer up into the ceiling while it was distracted by one of the jr clones. The gauntlet she had used to slam forward went dead for a moment, causing her to tilt to the side as its anti grav failed, but she still had the strength to pivot, raise the other one, and use the grappling hook to reel the mindflayer in so she could cleave into it with her hull claws. Another stepped into view as she finished it off with her chainsaw bayonet, hitting her with a stunning blast, but Kamek was there to take it on in her place, first smashing it with a magic fist summed above it, and then blasting it with his own magical bolts. On the other side of the room the same kind of teamwork played out, a stunned Bowser being protected by Jr and Mimi, who struck it with a combination of electroballs from the pokemon, and a mix of fire, earth, and metal projectiles from the prince. These drove it back long enough for Bowser to recover, at which point the towering king promptly punched their foe through a wall. Said wall incidentally turned out to be right next to where Ganondorf and Jesse had come in from, which meant that a moment or two after they’d made their check in the King came stomping through the hole he had just made, dusting off his hands as he did so. He then, quite contrary to Nadia’s suggestions, loudly called over [color=FD0000]”Hey! How’s it going?”[/color] prompting his son to pop his head into the same room a moment later and request that they [color=SpringGreen]”Come help us punch up some squids!”[/color] while the sound of spellfire and more Vault Breaker powered punches echoed through the halls behind them.