[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,373 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Ancient woods [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](249/150) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](195/100) [/center] As the kids traveled further west towards Shinjuku, the woods themselves began to thin out, but in their place the bamboo took over, growing thicker and larger till they had taken the place of the [url=https://i.imgur.com/gB7adjl.jpeg]trees themselves[/url]. This mass of growth turned out to apparently be focused around a place called [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EncFs1W_iHw]Jade Creek (♫)[/url], a water feature featuring a fair bit more water than its name suggests, given the deep pools of crystal clear water dotting the area. Pools that the kids, incidentally, were having to avoid as they dealt with the less than stellar road conditions. If they could even be called roads. [color=Aqua]”I don’t think this is actually a shortcut”[/color] Rika commented almost casually, to which her brother shouted back with exhilaration [color=SpringGreen]”are you kidding me! We are going so fast!”[/color] which was technically true. In bursts. This current burst was a result of the prince backing into a crystalline spring, that had sent them, or rather the Kuebiko, zooming down a hill, which smoothly arched up and down in a wave before they went into a stone loop de loop and went blasting straight downwards the side of a cliff towards the water below. That broke Rika’s composure and got her screaming alongside her brother, more in panic than exhilaration, before said brother hammered the metal attacker’s jump button and launched it clear off the wall. Together they slammed into the back of the cockpit in order to add just enough spin that the machine landed on its wheels, and thus let the stellar suspension take all the impact. Before they could make a sigh of relief however, they had to kill the momentum. To do that, they had to get past a bevy of obstacles. The first was a squad of hostile [url=https://i.imgur.com/jQdsmTM.jpeg]robots[/url] similar to ones that they’d already run into along this road, most of which seemed to either be standing guard or heading deeper in. Never back in the way they’d come. Jr dealt with this the same way he had the others. He held down the trigger on the Kuebiko’s weapon’s control stick and unleashed a blaze of energy bullets from the metal attacker’s bamboo barreled rotary cannon. One of the two sword robots rolled right into this, chassis benign shredded. The second received Rika’s helbard chucked into it’s face as the ship girl leaned out the door. Both were then run down as the Kuebiko smashed bodily into one, and Rika Lanced the other one (having teleported the helbard back and shape shifted it just in time to make the strike). The purple bot scratched the paint with its blaster, while the orange one tried to hit them with an extending lance, only for Rika to parry it with her helbard (once again shifted). Then they too were run over. They’d wondered and speculated about what they were doing here at first, but by now dealing with them was routine. Plus, road-killing them had hardly slowed them down, and they still had problems up ahead. First thing’s first, Jr jumped them over an impending block of stone, then had to accelerate as a thin bridge of it started to collapse under them, before jumping two more times to cross some floating platforms and then finally bringing them to a halt just at the edge of a cliff. Then there was a cracking sound beneath them as the cliff failed to take their weight, collapsing in such a way that it formed a big block of stone, sliced from the cliff at a 45 degree angle, that slid down the resulting slope towards the water, with them on top of it. Jr gunned the engines and leapt again at just the right moment for them to go sailing over said water while the rock went splashing into it They landed on top of an [url=https://i.imgur.com/0o0BTUx.png]odd plant[/url], which suddenly began spinning around, raising them up and up before stopping next to another. One that, once hopped onto, carried them out of the pit they’d slid into and back onto the path. Or as much of a path as existed. A bit more platforming, because really, that’s what this all was, barring some speedy segments, however, led them to an actual path. One clear cut through the bamboo, and freshly too. Off in the distance was the perpetrator, a towering 15 meter tall hovering [url=https://i.imgur.com/PoYzEun.png]killbot[/url] with a chainsaw (with which it had sawed down the forest) on one hand and a missile launcher on the other. It conveniently had the word Kaw written on one shoulder, which was presumably its name. The it was using the latter of its weapons to bombard the walls of a [url=https://i.imgur.com/DqnQ8Lg.jpeg]forest temple[/url] of some sort, blowing holes in it into which more of the robotic enemies the kids had run over on the way here where attempting to stream into. Holding them back where a squad of aromored [url=https://i.imgur.com/5kcTbV0.gif]panda people[/url] with crystal bayoneted rifles taking cover deeper into the structure. They could see this because there were a [i]lot[/i] of holes in the wall now. Kaw wasn't allowed to do this unhampered forever however. As the kids closed in, two more pandas, one wielding a [url=https://i.imgur.com/KEQbPM5.gif]sheild[/url] and another a [url=https://i.imgur.com/TLbq1ui.gif]frosty staff[/url] came barrling out of the temple. Literally in the shield carriers case, as he had curled up into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/Nuuphiq.gif]ball[/url] which slammed through the robot’s front lines. After careening through the big sword bots, he flipped out of the roll, landed on his shield, and then [url=https://i.imgur.com/94kYbi4.gif]surfed it[/url] through the smaller backline shooting bots before coming to a stop and demanded Kaw “Get lost!” His ally ran swiftly through the gap he’d cleared, and then more eloquently declared that “Freom will never get his hands of the kingdom stone as long as we live!“ Kaw did not reply, but this state of affairs seemed to suit it just fine as it lashed out at them with a swipe of its chainsaw hand. Unfortunately for it, they both leapt over the swipe with relative ease before retaliating, with a shield toss from the guy and a spiraling ice magic enhanced [url=https://i.imgur.com/Sa6dmWr.gif]stab[/url] from the lady. Rika and Jr saw all this as they approached, but rather than intervene Jr attempted to simply go around the whole mess, but were entirely unable to do so due to all the noise their machine was making. The champions of both sides of the conflict were much too busy with each other, but the minions of both somehow found enough time away from attacking each other to attack them as well. Rifle potshots pinged off of the Kuebiko, while a trio of [url=https://i.imgur.com/sku7YyW.png]blue wheeler[/url] bots pivoted and also opened fire with much more deadly blasts. Out of the two groups, it was the latter got the retaliatory fire from Jr (after he landed an evasive jump) a hail of shots being fired from the Kuebiko that ripped one of the bots to shreds. As he did this Rika opened the door, flipped herself onto the roof, and then deployed her drones. [color=Aqua]”Killing the robots!”[/color] she declared before her brother could demand to know what she was doing, during which she deployed 6 sword drones, 2 scout planes and one Col. Droneman, all of which opened fire with the chainguns and missile launcher the Col. was giving them. This drowned a second bot in firepower, before she thrust her hands forwards, and sent the sword drones all rocketing forwards into the third, shanking it in half a dozen places and hitting something important enough that it ashed. That put a stop to the panda’s plinking fire certainly, even if it was just because of the enemy of my enemy and all that. Because of Galeem, it’d still be an issue when they ran out of bots to shoot. [color=SpringGreen]”We can just go around!”[/color] Jr attempted to insist, aware of the inevitably of the pandas picking back up on their shooting of them if they won. Rika simply insisted [color=Aqua]”I’ll take the big one, you the little ones!”[/color] however, to which he responded with a groaning sigh as he slammed shut the door and got to work shooting the robot army in the back using the Kuebiko’s rotary cannon. Rika stashed drones again as she summoned her helbard as she leapt off their ride, and then changed the weapon into a paintbrush. This she stuck to the floor, painting her own highway of ink upon which she sailed into action. [color=Aqua]”Helping!”[/color] she called out to the guy and lady panda who were jumping and dashing all around the Kaw bot at high speeds. This seemed to be pretty effective, which was why she was sailing rather than running around, but they weren't putting much of a dent in it. “It’s dangerous!” The ice lady called in warning, but the guy was all for it, calling out “Give it a shot if you can keep up!” She was fairly sure she could, and then swiftly proved it by bullet jumping over a cheap low saw swing by the bot. Poseidon’s water splashed out of her, the impact lightly un-steadying the foe, which made it easier to ram a punch into it. This immediately didn't do too much damage, even with the Brachydios’s might behind her punches, nor did the one she did after swapping her paintbrush to her back and feather fall rune hopping upwards out of the way of an elbow swipe, which socked it in the face. The third however, which she got by grappling hooking onto Kaw as it tried to fly back and get some space from the annoying gnat, did, as her Denting Blows procked and she hit thrice as hard, and crippled the machine’s armor to boot. She released her grapple in just the right time to use her H3AD-5T v2 to lock onto a group of bots and slam down into them, the fall distance causing a big explosion that blew them to smithereens. She was then forced to dodge and weave as missiles came raining down, each one slowing in time as they got close, and giving her just enough margin to slip around them and get clear of the blast radius. She then joined in with the panda lady’s [url=https://i.imgur.com/MOeblEf.gif]icy machingun[/url] fire being launched up at the bot by blasting it with disruption cannon shots from her rigging, before maneuvering thrustering to avoid a meteoric down slash from the bot’s saw arm. She retaliated by blasting it with shocking goop from her palm mounted grizco blaster, frazzling the bot, while also launching a swarm of insect winged electrical motes from the hanger in the other gauntlet that delivered a flurry of shocks all over it. The panda guy’s shield slammed into its back as she jumped over a side slash, while the lady leapt up and delivered another twirling stab to its side. It then did a 360 spin with its saw, but all three leapt over, and then when it tried to slash down on the panda guy he rolled out of the way while the lady battered it, and Rika summoned her Vespikan Ichor Queen striker to deliver a devastating chop with its several meter long cleaver. Overwhelmed by the united assault, it tried to pull more bots off of the siege and into its own fight, only for Jr to gun them down with the Kuebiko’s cannon as they pulled back. With that, enough was enough, as the bot simply flew up again and started blasting at them from out of range, forcing them to weave back and forth out of the way of the missiles while firing back sporadic shots at its own weaving form. A useless waste of time on both sides, but more of one on its as jr decisively turned the course of the underling’s battle, taking the pandas from overwhelmed and on the back foot to pushing forward to mop up the last of the bots. Battered, and thoroughly beaten, Kaw took one last look at the battlefield, before beginning to turn away… only to suddenly charge down towards the Kuebiko in either an act of petty vengeance, or a tactical move to remove at least one high priority threat before it fell back. Unfortunately for it, while the Kuebiko wasn't equipped to dodge the motoric saw slash, Jr didn’t even try, and instead summoned his striker Bodia, or rather Bodia’s fist, that slammed out of nowhere and right into the body of Kaw, smashing it out of the air and onto its back. A moment later, the two panda warriors and Rika were on it, bashing and blasting it till something important broke, and the towering machine was reduced to ash. “Phew, what a bout!” the guy said, whipping his brow, while the perfectly cool lady said “thank you, stranger, for your help” only for both to be confused when, A. Rika grabbed the robot’s spirit, and B. some of their troops started shooting at the Kuebiko again. [color=Aqua]”Probubly thought it was a robot and won’t stop till we go so bye!”[/color] Rika called back in a hurry as she made a run for her ride. Jr popping open the door and Rika enduring shots bouncing off of her energy shield before she leapt in and slammed said door back down behind her. [color=SpringGreen]”Urgh, can’t even get all the spirits because of them!”[/color] Jr complained as they drove off, but then cheered up when Rika told him that [color=Aqua]”I still got you another giant robot to use as a striker once we get back to the ship though”[/color] They left the panda pair in the dust to go and try and knock some sense into their colleagues who inexplicably thought the machine that had decimated the enemy forces was still a threat. Then, about five minutes later, by which point the spirits were all gone, they came back and Rika called out in question: [color=Aqua]”Hi! Sorry! How do you get to Shinjuku from here?”[/color] The answer had them bickering all the way back down the Jade Creek.