[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,474, (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Shinjuku [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](265/150) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](210/100) [/center] As Jr and Rika raced past the squad of 4 cops, brazenly breaking all the rules including the ones said cops governed reality (namely their ability to simply bug out of a fight) they got a few seconds of grace before they started getting chased. They took every hammering heartbeat of those seconds and pumped them straight into getting out of dodge. Jr reached the portal first as planned and, expecting resistance, clicked his tape just before entering it. What emerged on the other side wasn’t a little kid, but instead the towering Dullahan that had taken all four of the elite cops to take down. Cops they’d left behind. That left only the rank and file to come face to face to the ethereal emerging from out of the black wall of the hollow where it cut into a street. Specifically, it was a hollow ate up half of a road, with the other half absurdly still in use, only some concrete barriers blocking drivers from taking a swerve into the liminal space. Or at least that was usually the case. Currently the temporary traffic lights were both set to red and the cops had commandeered the real space half of the street, setting up a cordon while they waited for transport to arrive to pick up their prisoners. A Dullahan emerging out from the hollow instead of their leaders caused quite a bit of alarm. The prisoners, cuffed as they were, wanted to be nowhere near this thing, while the cops were caught between stopping their panicked flight, getting away themselves, or just being stunned in surprise. The [url=https://i.imgur.com/9fuARyS.png]sweeper unit[/url] in their employ had no such emotional foibles and immediately lunged into action, deploying circular saws from its hands. Jr raised his new cassette beast’s shield in response, blocking the blow, only for the machine to hold the contact and for the saws to start to slice through the crystal bulwark. That could have represented a problem for sure, but Jr was only here to hold the line for a breath or two while Rika hid behind him and tried to work out where they were. Or rather got Seek to do that for them. “...” [color=Aqua]”Got it! To the right!”[/color] she called out, prompting Jr to haul the robot’s saw out of the way and to click off the tape. He dodged to the side, avoiding the sweeper’s attempt to kick him and causing it to instead kick a magma mine. Then both kids were running towards the cops who couldn't open shoot at them due to the risk of crossfire, and who when they tried to deliver melee strikes instead found the pair leaping over them with their absurd platforming capabilities. A monet later they landed, having cleared the cordon, and then started running. Behind them the elite cops emerged from the hollow, while sirens blared as someone reported in about a set of kids on the run. Which was going to make doing some shopping a bit tricky. Especially when they spotted one of the big digital screens that normally warned about hollows instead switching to footage of them, warning about "dangerous delinquents" [color=Aqua]”Woops”[/color] Rika said, only really now cottoning on to how her actions had had consequences [color=Aqua]”Guess this is why we generally don’t do this stuff”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”Doesn’t matter, stick to the plan!”[/color] Jr replied, before asking their stolen NetNavi [color=SpringGreen]”We close Seek?”[/color] “...” [color=Aqua]”I see it!”[/color] Rika replied, prompting them both to make for an alleyway beside a building that had been partially eaten by the Hollow, but which was still standing. There they found a thin gap between the hollow and the wall, just as Seek had told them, and daringly slipped inside. When the cops burst into the building via the front door a few moments later, and rushed towards the back rooms they didn’t find the kids. Instead they just found more of what was covering the inside of the building: masses of graffiti, the condemned building having been turned into something of an arthouse for the stuff. Graffiti which Jr had added his own addition too: an M with two umlauts on top. [hr] Half way across the world, and deep underground, the pair of kids materialised from a steam of paint globules, and then dropped down at the front gates of the Home of Tears, having traveled there via Jr’s warp graffiti. [img]https://assets.pubpub.org/5h35dfwe/71610386738682.jpeg[/img] The seekers had spent a fair amount of time in this, the greatest city of the Under, and it had all been eventful. Alongside scaling a tower filled with determination infused monsters, donating to an orphanage, cheese running and partaking in auctions, they had also slain their first Consul, P, here and inadvertently opened up a spot on their alphabetical roster for Peach to take his place. In doing so they’d handed the town over to a sorcerous man named [url=https://i.imgur.com/rF1A4GK.png]Gallo[/url] (who’s tower they had spawned in close by too) and he’d apparently wasted no time in demolishing the [url=https://i.imgur.com/886aw9S.png]statue[/url] of the Consul that had once stood center of place atop a grand fountain found at the heart of the city. This fountain was held instead, at least temporarily, into a podium of some kind, atop which Gallo himself could be seen, along with a few other figures, while all around them the people of the city had gathered. Among the people up top, one was a stern looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/HUXyPlr.png]Deer Woman[/url] was in the midst of being sworn in as the city’s democratically elected Mayor, if the campaign posters plastered on the walls where any indication. [color=SpringGreen]”Guess the guy doesn't want to deal with actually running the place I guess?”[/color] Jr said as he watched this, to which Rika shrugged. She had a bigger concern on her mind, which was [color=Aqua]”Think they all still hate us after F tried to get them to run us out of town?”[/color] because the crowd was definitely about the same size as the one that had chased them all the way across Crumble Canyon to the Pizza tower at its far end. [color=SpringGreen]”Ehhhh. You know what. Maybe. Let’s not find out”[/color] Jr agreed after spotting the real Undyne in it, along with her mermaid guards, who’d been the biggest actual threats of that chase, before adding [color=SpringGreen]”Plus they aren't gonna like us when we jump someone”[/color] Rika nodded to that too, after which they went to have a snoop around the quiet streets for a good spot to do so, poking their noses into alleyways here and there till they came across something odd: A shifty looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/2xDa56H.gif]imp[/url] creature hanging out in one of those alleyways. Upon spotting their own shifty ways, it raised its head up a bit and grinned, before bobbing its head back to encourage them to come on into its back ally realm while the fish cops were all busy with frivolous ceremonies. The pair glanced at each other, then approached, only for it [url=https://i.imgur.com/F5cmiTv.gif]extend a claw[/url] from its jacket to strike while a half dozen other [url=https://i.imgur.com/jcAWQwm.gif]imps[/url] leapt out of hiding spaces with a collective “boo!” The combined barrage of Jump Scares left the kids flinched with fright, allowing the monsters to make a grab for their things, including, once again, Jr’s phone which Seek had been making a map of the town on. The kids were a lot tougher than they looked however, and tanked the blows handily rather than being taken down for the count, after which they turned the tables on the would-be robbers. Soon enough they’d grabbed their stuff right back from the now fleeing lesser imps and got the taller trenchcoat imp, the Hopskin, knocked to the ground. Rika then pinned it there and gave it it a few socks to the face before Jr used one of their remaining blank tapes to make a recording of it. [color=Aqua]”So… Now what do we do with him?”[/color] Rika asked once they’d gotten what they’d needed, entirely ready to just kill their ambusher. Jr however thought much more deeply about this, the days and past actions and consequences all weighing deeply on his mind before he gave up and just decided they should [color=SpringGreen]”Stuff it in a trash can!”[/color] So they did, because it was funny to them, leaving the trenchcoat imp struggling upside down with a face full of garbage while they made one last stop, which was just to go and buy a cheap rain jacket that would fit Undyne’s frame. It was only after they’d done this that the shopkeeper asked “wait, shouldn’t you be at the ceremony?” Prompting them to both hurry out of sight once more. Thus, with all their preparations made, Jr painted them a portal leading back to Shinjuku, where Jr, wearing the form of Undyne with a long rainjacket over her armor, and Rika, wearing the form of a not at all suspicious looking Imp, materialized in front of the city, and once again started to make their way towards the tape store. This time, there’d be no distractions or run-ins with the law, they swore. Just as long as no-one tried to steal Seek again, and also just as long as no one recognized the distinctive device they were installed on as having belonged to the kids whose faces were currently on every screen in the city.