[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,392 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Shinjuku [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](255/150) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](200/100) [/center] On the other end of the line, someone answered Rika’s call. Table manners were not something Pit had ever needed to concern himself with, and that would likely be the case now as well considering the big group that was gathered in the cafe, so he had no qualms about pressing a hand to his ear and responding to Rika's report right then and there. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"Roger that, Rika! We're all set here, we all managed to sign up,"[/color] he said. Well, he wasn't sure about Juri but barring Primrose and Therion who'd said they weren't planning to join the tournaments, everyone else that had stayed in Esaka had registered. Speaking of Primrose, before Pit continued another voice briefly crackled to life through the linkpearl. [color=D34C25]"That's a good idea. I know you both can take care of yourselves, but do try not get into too much trouble before then... and don't trust any strange men,"[/color] the dancer advised, to which Rika replied that [color=Aqua]”We’ll try”[/color] Primrose offered no insight into what she herself was up to before her connection cut out again, allowing Pit to pick up where he left off. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"When you guys get back you can cheer us all on and–"[/color] the angel cut himself off abruptly, but with the connection still live even if a bit spotty, it might have been possible for the Koopas to hear Ms. Fortune's exclamation and Band's statement as a hooded man appeared at their table. Pit's voice dropped low and he whispered, [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"uh, gotta go,"[/color] before he pulled his hand from the pearl and closed the call. [color=Aqua]”Ok, bye!”[/color] Rika said, as she too closed the line, before glancing at the thing they were currently trusting to help them out probably didn’t count as either a man or as strange. The genderless child looking NetNavi on their rented computer screen known as Seek was indeed being very helpful, as well as patient with Jr trying to explain what they were even looking for. [color=SpringGreen]”No, cassette tapes, like these”[/color] Jr was saying as he pulled up one of their few unused tapes out of his duffle bag and showed it to the screen’s webcam. This caused the NetNavi to tilt their horned hat wearing head (the hat incidentally having been the reason Jr had picked them out of all those on offer) and to tap their chin a few times in thought before they replied. “...” [color=SpringGreen]”Yeah. They can totally transform people. Not gonna show you coz people’d freak out probably. So trust me on this”[/color] Jr replied, to which Seek nodded. They then, on the screen, exited the virtual reality representation of the store and entered into a much more abstract representation of the city, one made up of [url=https://i.imgur.com/rp77T07.jpeg]nodes[/url] floating in a void that lead to other vr representations of real world location. There, the view zoomed out a lot so they could scan the city in its entirety, and in doing so, rather interestingly, revealed that the hollows that were eating up part of the physical reality also seemed to be eating up the virtual ones in the same places. [color=SpringGreen]”Huh. Weird”[/color] “...” [color=SpringGreen]”I guess if they ate all the network infrastructure that would make sense, but still. Weird”[/color] [color=Aqua]”What’s the rest of the world look like anyway?”[/color] Rika asked, prompting Seek to tilt the view from a top down view to a behind the shoulder one in order to show them it. They panned their view around the mostly empty void that surrounded the city, and indeed ate up most of the world, including much of what must have once been Midgar, a former galaxy of light now fading and vanishing. Ironically the one spot that wasn’t a void was the void itself, as there hung satellites and stations a plenty, it seemed, all beaming network connections to each other and to the isolated spots of information age (and above) civilization found in Galeem’s mostly below that world. [color=Aqua]”Neet Seek”[/color] Rike said after they’d taken it all in, very pleased with her wordplay, if it could even be called that, before they got back on task. The NetNavi headed out into the virtual city, dodging the odd virus or malevolent program in the process, while looking for places that might fit the bill of their tape buying/learning needs. At one point they failed to do so, and were subsequently pursued by a swarm of [url=https://i.imgur.com/scu1yUo.png]batty[/url] viruses. They then had to be bailed out by the gang of four kids across the room, which prompted Jr to start talking with them about monster battling, leaving Rika somewhat alone with Seek as they kept up the search. They got to talking, which eventually resulted in Rika asking [color=Aqua]”So you are, like, a person in there?”[/color] “...” [color=Aqua]”and you just, kinda, stuck working here?”[/color] “...” [color=Aqua]”Lame”[/color] Rika replied, before thinking about how much she’d not like that and then asking [color=Aqua]”Wanna come with us?”[/color] “...” [color=Aqua]”Sure we can. Probably. How’d we do that if we're gonna?”[/color] “...” [color=Aqua]”What’s a PET?”[/color] “...” [color=Aqua]”Oh so like a phone? Jr’s got one of those, hang on”[/color] Saying that she leaned over, casually borrowed her brother’s Rotom Phone while he wasn’t looking at it and then tried to work out how to actually transfer Seek over onto it. The NetNavi had absolutely no idea, given that they didn’t have such things here, prompting Rika to go and crash the steamer girl’s stream in order to ask her colab partner who’d been talking about pokemon about how she’d go about using the pokemon related phone. The answer, apparently, was to just leave it all to the Rotom that was possessing the phone, which was a factor she had almost entirely forgotten about. She set the phone down onto the computer they were using, and the Rotom promptly formed a connection via possessing it as well, and proceeded to extract Seek from the computer (they’d logged out of the network to get them back into it) and put them onto the phone. It was, apparently, a very weird experience, even if the NetNavi quickly adapted and downloaded a bunch of helpful info onto the phone while they were at it. Of course, the question of what she was doing was quickly raised by the store owner, who could tolerate a girl having massive gauntlets strapped to her back, but not someone messing with his machines. About ten seconds later Rika had grabbed the phone, her brother and as much of their remaining lunch as she could (in her mouth) and they’d made a run for it. Fortunately, while Rika had been going around planning her escape attempt/kidnapping of Seek, the NetNavi had actually finished the objective they’d been set. As such, as soon as they’d lost their elderly pursuer, they opened a map of the town Seek had downloaded and started navigating through the town via it, heading for a place called ‘Random Play’ that apparently sold tapes. Jr led the way with his newly NetNavi enhanced rotom phone (which he thought was super cool of his sister to get him) and Rika’s hand in the other, making sure they’d get there together without getting separated. This method of navigation went flawlessly right up until they ended up being lead right past a [url=https://i.imgur.com/TatbI61.jpeg]hollow[/url] that was casually devouring a city block, with only a set of concrete barricades diving the anomaly from the daily lives of the citizens strolling right past it, not even paying it a glance. [color=SpringGreen]”So they just. Live like this. With a big death void just kinda, sitting there”[/color] Rika leaned over to ask Seek, holding up his phone so the NetNavi could see it through the phone’s camera. “...” Jr declared this [color=SpringGreen]”Crazy”[/color] only for Rika to point out that [color=Aqua]”Didn’t you say we’re gonna live in a castle surrounded by lava? Isn’t that kinda the same?”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”What? No! That’s totally different and cool”[/color] Jr retorted. Before they could begin bickering about this, they were both confused to see a [url=https://i.imgur.com/yAhMzYc.png]Bunny robot[/url] (called a Bangboo according to Seek) run past them, leap up, grab the top of the concrete barrier, and then proceeded to try and scramble over it, legs kicking as it did so. Rather than help, Jr just started recording this amusing sight, only for karma to strike as someone shoved their way out of the crowd behind them, emerging at a run. Rika began to turn to glance behind them, only for the figure to sweep was her brother, grabbing his rotom phone out of his hands as they did so. [color=SpringGreen]”Hey! What the!”[/color] The prince began to shout, making a grab for the figure, but they were already vaulting the concrete barrier and making a run for the Hollow. The figure seemed to be carrying a messenger bag full of other stolen goods with them, into which the rotom phone was stuffed, muffling the panicked cries of the rotom possessing said phone inside of it. Cries of “Robber! Thief!” now emerging from the crowd behind them somewhere coming from a burgled store owner only confirmed the guess of what was in the bag. Not that the kids were really making any guesses, they were instead crying out [color=SpringGreen]”My phone!”[/color] and [color=SpringGreen]”Seek!”[/color] in alarm as what was going on caught up with them, before they went running after the thief, both leaping over the barrier in a single bound rather than needing to vault it, still holding hands as they went. Neither paid any mind to the shouts of “Hey! Wait!” coming from the robbed store owner, nor any of the few other cries of alarm from other passers by about how it was crazy for two kids to run into the Hollow like that. None of them, however, followed them in to try and stop them or get them back. Inside the Hollow, the world was quite different from outside, and yet not exactly in the way that either of the kids had expected. A cloudy sky, shimmering with an aurora hued skybeams hung above them rather than an inky void for one, and so they were entirely capable of seeing the [url=https://i.imgur.com/pnoeWw3.jpeg]ruined buildings[/url] littering the landscape within. Parts of these were coated with black crystals. Others had parts of themselves floating up into the sky. One was itself just up there, hanging above it all, ready to come crashing down to deliver a killing blow to the already dying infrastructure and yet never doing so. Ahead of them, by the ruins of an old building, the thief had stopped to pull on a [url=https://i.imgur.com/ZYjlE6F.png]dome shaped helmet[/url] from a hiding spot and to strip off a jacket that had been hiding arm insulating gloves and some kind of radiation monitor. They’d also retrieved a fishing spear tipped with nasty looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/UYb4re9.png]electrical prongs[/url] from the same stash. Upon having attention brought to them by his Bangboo he first went “Huh?” before he then turned, spotted them, and yelled “Piss off kids! This is no place for the likes of you! Go run home to your mamas!” at them while brandishing his weapon threateningly, the end crackling with electricity. Jr responded by not getting into a back and forth argument like he had with the pandawas, and instead raising up a metal tattooed hand with which he formed and then launched a hail of metal knives at the thief. The thief swore, tried to dodge to the side, only for the knives to home in as they flew and to stab him in the arm, chest, and helmet (who’s dome shape meant the blade stopped before it hit his head). He swore loudly and unintelligibly, dropping his weapon, and making a break for it, darting into the ruined building as best he could while bleeding from multiple stab wounds. [color=SpringGreen]”Hey, come back and fight us like you’re supposed to!!”[/color] Jr yelled, but the man was both a coward and genuinely injured enough that he knew he’d lost the fight before it’d even begun, thus being allowed to run by Galeem. His Bangboo led the way for him, while in his bag of loot Jr’s phone started playing an alarm sound that let them follow after him in turn, rushing through ruins, darting around crystal formations, and leaping over rusted cars. Just when they thought they were catching up the thief began yelling “Boss! Boss! Help! These kids are crazy!” as he ran into the playground of a standard template japanese school, prompting movement in one of the more intact looking classrooms overlooking it. It became significantly less intact when one of the windows and part of the walls was smashed in and a [url=https://i.imgur.com/PN92skI.png]Rampant Brute[/url] emerged from the ruin he’d created. “You idiot, you led them right to the base!” He roared down at them, voice distorted by his helmet, before ripping out a section of the wall to use as a massive maul and leaping down two stories to the ground below. “After I’m done turning them into paste, you’re going to be doing pushups till your arms bleed, you wimp!” he told the bloodied thief. The thief was however spared this fate by another flurry of iron knives launched by Jr, which dropped and ashed him in an instant, and caused him to drop his bag of ill-gotten gains. Including the phone containing Seek, which was now sitting right in the way of what was sure to be a rampaging charge from the big brute. In response, Rika pulled on her headphones and pressed play, transforming herself into the towering, multi-legged and importantly fast form of the Beast. “Maybe not a wimp after all” the Brute said upon seeing this, posthumously forgiving his lackey's cowardice, before he called out “Boy! I got us some proper workout material!" prompting a pair of [url=https://i.imgur.com/vd1e88W.png]enforces[/url] to emerge and drop down through the hole he’d smashed to move to flank him. To add insult to the (promise of) burly injury, a trio of [url=https://i.imgur.com/liW8za2.png]poachers[/url] poked thier heads out the windows, crossbows in hand, while behind them several other, scrawnier, figurines made a run for the stairs. It looked like they were going to have a hell of a fight on their hands, and that, Rika thought, meant Primrose might be a bit upset about the amount of trouble they’d immediately gone and gotten themselves into.