[center]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 3,481, (+5)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Shinjuku 
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](274/150)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP:  [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](219/100)
[/center]

Once Teevee caught his breath, he picked himself up and cleared the court, though he didn’t follow Malina inside. His color pattern regarded the disguised Koopa Kids and Clover’s parents with curious enthusiasm. “You two actually gonna give ‘em a shot? That water-type beast’s really tough, and their fusion was crazy, but I bet you’d make a great team!”

Before Taion could deflect, the little girl sitting on his shoulders flapped her arms excitedly. “Yeah, yeah! Mommy and daddy are the best team of all! They can beat anyone!”

“Well, I wouldn’ say that, necessarily…” Her father gave an exasperated laugh.

“Wot?” Eunie turned on him, her expression teasing. “You think we couldn’t give these little blighters a proper lickin’? After all we’ve been through, love, you still en’t confident we could win?”

Taion adjusted his glasses indignantly. “Well, of course we could, dear. All I’m saying is that pride comes before the fall...”

Her dad’s declaration seemed to fire Clover up. “Mommy, daddy, c’mon, I wanna see you win!” Her eyes got big and teary as she bent over Taion’s head to stare at him pleadingly. “Pleaaaase?”

Eunie attempted to do the same, making her own eyes as big as they could possibly get. Taion crumbled immediately, relenting with a sigh. “Very well, very well. If our new friends are game, of course.”

The two friends in question were in the middle of picking themselves up and dusting themselves down when the question came, prompting Jr (still wearing Undyne’s form) to glance at Rika (who was still a hopskin) and tilt his head in question. Post fusion he was now aware of his sister’s desire to help the new life that was Clover, but that was all they’d gotten through before the fusion had collapsed. Which left the question/discussion of how they were meant to help her unable to be coordinated.

Not that they were able to talk about it anyway, given they were in hearing distance of people who might take “your kid needs to go live in an airship that’s always on the run” the wrong way.

Which meant fusing again might be their best bet. And also holding it together this time.

[color=SpringGreen]”Sure, just let us heal up first”[/color] Jr replied after receiving a nod from Rika, after which he also asked [color=SpringGreen]”So you guys know about fusion? It was just a rumor in the place we got the tapes from. We kinda only pulled it off the first time during a, uh, bad time out of luck I think, n’ that was only the second”[/color]

The two shared a knowing glance, with Eunie in particular looking especially smug. “Oh yeah, we’re well aware.”

“It’s not exactly unknown, but it requires a special kind of bond,” Taion explained as he put an affectionate hand on Eunie’s shoulder. She turned to lift Clover off her husband’s shoulders and gently set her down on the ground. “Clemence sells rewinds in the cafe, by the way.” He didn’t explain what those were or how to use them, expecting that skilled tape fighters would already know.

They did not. But that wasn’t going to stop Jr from matching back in, realizing he didn’t have a way to get to their money, and thus having to make a trip to the bathroom to avoid un-transforming. A quick change out of and then back into Undyne’s form got the prince his pokemon dufflebag on Undyne’s shoulder which he then fished around for the money to buy the rewinds. 

Once he’d done that, he and Rika stared at their purchase for a few moments, and then Jr had to lean in and ask [color=SpringGreen]”Uh, how do these work?”[/color] while poking the palm of one hand with the tape rewinder.

“Stick it into the tape reel and turn it back to the beginning,” Clemence supplied helpfully, a friendly smile on her face. 

[color=SpringGreen]”Oh, so, uh, not a thing you can use while using it then? Um...”[/color] Jr replied, before Rika awkwardly slid one into the Hopskin’s pocket and also went for a bathroom break. Followed by Jr also going for one. Which wasn’t suspicious at all.

Still, once they’d finished, they were back outside and into the court, ready to face down their next pair of opponents. Opponents who were probably going to be a lot more coordinated than the last set.

“They’re back!” Clover waved as the siblings approached. Her parents stopped talking strategy to take up their positions on the other side of the court as Clover practically bounced off the walls with excitement. Taion stood calmly with his arms crossed, while Eunie put her hands on her hips with a grin.

Taion stood calmly with his arms crossed. “All healed up? Good. After the performance you gave earlier, we can’t afford to hold back.”

“So don’t blame us if we go overboard!” Eunie grinned put her headset on, carefully working around her headwings. “If we do, I’ll have Taion fix ya up after. Let’s see whatcha got!”

The couple dissolved into static. When Eunie reformed, she had become a [url=https://i.imgur.com/wX8hsCv.png]punkish chicken dragon[/url] with leathery hide and a nose ring in her beak. A sonar ping radiated from her as her Echolocation passive automatically took effect, granting her thirty seconds of Multitarget. Taion, meanwhile, became a [url=https://i.imgur.com/XIvmnrU.png]battery rabbit[/url] with a scrap metal arm that sparked with electric current. 

[color=SpringGreen]”Bring it on!”[/color] Jr replied, twirling Undyne’s spear with bravado even as he internally groaned about there being another electric type in this match (one which was also cool which was doubly unfair). At least maybe the dragon was a fire type or something, and so Jr promptly probed this theory with a light volley of water spears using the Torrent.

Rika also now knew a bit more about how her moves worked, which she demonstrated by lunging towards the bulky looking electric rabbit and trying to pull off a stunning Jump Scare against it before it could move and start multihitting them to death.

Rika’s Jump Scare worked, successfully rendering Taion unable to take action as his Lapacitor form reeled. On the other hand, the water spears seemed to have no particular effectiveness against Eunie’s Rockertrice beast, and after shrugging them off it was she who acted next. She unleashed Stony Look, and an alarming red flash radiated from her eyes. Unfortunately, the first ten seconds of her Multitarget buff went to waste as the Stony Look didn’t seem to take. Whatever the two had meant to try, it had failed, and the ball was back in the kids’ court.

With a mix of worry about not having the type advantage he had hoped for and overconfidence he had time to compensate Jr declared [color=SpringGreen]”Alright. Then let’s pump it up!”[/color] Jr declared, raising arms (i.e. his spear) above his head to power it up. Rika meanwhile now tossed out a Peekaboo as a longer term solution to Taion’s incoming electrical devastation, also underestimating the Rockertrice due to its first move failing to have an impact.

By then, Eunie had recovered enough AP to go for another Stony Look. This time the red flash instantly Petrified both Rika and Junior, encasing them in stone that made it so hard to move that they could effectively only block. It also changed both of them to the earth type, and when Taion as Lapacitor followed up with a simple lightning-type Smack against Junior, it prompted a Vitrified reaction that changed his type again, this time to Glass.

It certainly made it too hard to talk, much as Jr tried to mouth off about this being cheap even as he raised Undyne’s spear and armored gauntlets defensively (and it was a very good defence) despite being able to now see through it due to being glassy. Rika didn’t have the luxury of this durability, and could merely hunker down. 

With gleeful relish, Eunie went with a multi-targeted Smack in order to preserve AP. It dealt only minor damage to Junior, but her air type reacted with his newly-added glass type to inflict Resonate. Her partner followed suit with Copper Chop, which despite being metal-type, also added a stack of Resonate.

He wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but saying it felt bad was an understatement, as Undyne’s armor (now glass) was now vibrating with a bone shaking intensity. The only thing he could think of to fix this was to change tapes to something that wasn’t made of glass, but the one he had left was the Etherial, and given it had been the talk of the town going by public news reports (and Seek’s internet browsing). 

Then he remembered, and switched to the other tape he and Rika had, Undyne dissolving into static and being replaced by the toothy jawed bottom half of a Flukemon. A moment later, Rika followed suit, and transformed into the upper half of that same beast.

The quick switch to far more unconventional forms did nullify the Petrified status, but Junior’s Vitrified status remained in effect. Now, though, the Resonance stacks were on a much weaker beast. With only ten seconds left on Vitrified, there was no time to pivot, though. Now without Multi-target, Eunie let loose a Sonic Boom to deal air-type damage to both foes manually. It left Rika’s fluke half with only a little health, but it gave Junior a final stack of Resonance, which instantly shattered his tape and returned the young koopa to his true form.

For his part, Taion seemed to think nothing of it, and moved to try and finish Rika’s beast off with a Smack. Unfortunately, the accuracy debuff from Peekaboo came into effect and he missed. On the other hand, his passive Energy Reserves kicked in to give Eunie a free AP. 

Jr tensed up upon his reveal, but upon seemingly not being recognised had scrambled out of the way of the fighting to a spot that he could start making them a quick exit, should the pair have simply been too engaged in the fight to have recognized him as a wanted criminal.

Though Eunie was ready to square up against Rika’s Hopskin, Taion saw Junior run away. Under normal circumstances he might have noticed something was wrong and called the match, but with Galeem’s influence in play he could show no mercy. As Eunie used Incinerate to pelt Rika with multiple fireblasts Taion followed Junior out of the basketball court. Clover’s confusion at Junior’s breach of etiquette turned into concern when Taion went after him. “Daddy? Where are you going?” The Lapacitor gestured at her to stay put, but did not slow his pursuit, and Clover did not listen. “Daddy!” Eunie looked over, certain, despite being bound to Rika by Galeem’s luster.

[color=SpringGreen]”Huh, why are you still after me? You won, I'm just, uh, getting clear?”[/color] Jr said, unsure as to why he was being followed other than it presumably being Galeem’s fault. Sure he might be backing off a lot, but surely it made sense to not be in the way of the ongoing fight, right?

Still, he might have been saying he had given up the fight, but his tense, defensive posture certainly didn’t echo that sentiment, the boy preparing to magma rush out of the way of whatever move he was planning to use. He did not want to find out if he could also get resonated, that was for sure.

What he didn’t realize, of course, was that if someone still had combat-capable tapes, they weren’t technically beaten. Clover followed along, calling for her dad to come back, but as much as this distressed Taion he couldn’t stop fighting. Lapacitor might be slower than Junior by default, but this beast had one thing the koopa didn’t. Taion uses Zoomies to rush forward with extreme speed, faster than his foe could react, and strike him with a weak beast-type blow.

Still in the court, Rika endured the fireball slinging, and then put her all into winning this now 1 vs 1 with the large stockpile of AP she’d saved up between being frozen and tape switching. She lunged forwards, opening the fluke’s jaws wide to bite Eunie. 

The Bite struck true, but even if Rockertrice hadn’t been tanky, this was the first hit it had received. When Eunie struck back with Inflame, it was enough to destroy Rika’s fluke tape and return her to normal in a fizzle of static.

She waved awkwardly, then remembered she could talk again and asked [color=Aqua]”are we also…?”[/color] before glancing to the side as an [color=SpringGreen]”youch!”[/color] resounded from the speed tackled Jr. The boy dashed away from his pursuer, leaving a magma mine in his wake, and then tried to make his way back to his sister with more, non-mine laying dashes.

Eunie paused briefly as the mine burst against Taion’s form, briefly consuming him, but when he fought through the burns to chug along after Junior, she turned back to look to Rika–to Stony Look, specifically. This time she got lucky first try, and for the second time in one fight the abyssal found herself Petrified. Seeing this, Taion abandoned Junior and approached Rika to deliver a lightning-type Smack and inflict her with Vitrified.

[color=SpringGreen]”Oh no”[/color] Jr began to gasp, before finishing aggressively [color=SpringGreen]”you don’t!”[/color] as he formed and hurled spears forward, past Taion, only to have them flip and ram back towards him to slow his progress if nothing else.

His sister meanwhile was once again stuck frozen, and there was no way for her to tape shift like this to escape it. Her gauntlets already would have had trouble switching the tapes before, now it was impossible. 

Fortunately, she had ways to fight that didn’t involve moving, summoning her Vespikan Ichor Queen striker. The massive blood red wasp queen towered over everything in the basketball court as it hefted its brutal cleaver and then slammed it down towards Eunie. 

Taken by surprise, Eunie received the full brunt of the cleaver, then let out a squawking roar of pain. Taion remained silent, but with several spears embedded in the Lapacitor’s battery-shaped body, he wasn’t faring much better. Still he pushed doggedly on, not to Smack Rika, but to defend Eunie. As the follow-up stinger thrust from the queen came in, Taion caught it in his metallic pincer, then sent a current of electricity through and into the big bug. Unfortunately, that left both of them vulnerable to attack from Junior.

As Rika convulsed from the sympathy damage, Jr used a striker of his own to try and free her one, summing Bodiga’s fist to smash down on top of Taion, while the prince himself raised his paintbrush and cast [color=SpringGreen]”Esuna!”[/color] to try and clear the petrification.  

The striker’s arm was big enough, and Eunie close enough, that both of them took damage from the gigantic hammerfist. While the metallic impact did give Taion Multi-target, it left him and his wife reeling and winded. When their heads stopped spinning, they found Rika cured, and Eunie’s next attempt at Stony Look missed. Taion snapped his pincer shut on one of the spears in his body so that he could pull it out, throw it down, then use Charge to blitz through Junior and end up behind him.

[color=Aqua]”Behind!”[/color] Rika called in warning in response to this, prompting her brother to backhop straight into Taion with his spiky shell, before forming a blade on his elbow and stabbing that backwards for good measure. 

As he did that, Rika lunged in to deliver a one two punch to Eunie, while also summoning her other striker, Maria, to join her in a combo with a one two slash with her swordblades.

The Lapacitor let out a low, pained squeak as the spikes and blades pierced his body. The lightning arcs that levitated his electromagnetic scrap arm faltered for a moment, the pieces of metal almost hitting the ground. His original plan had been to follow up Charge with Battery, but the situation was more dire than he thought. When he spotted Eunie under attack, he changed tactics and used Zoomies to speed away from Junior and bop Rika. The attack did a little damage, but that was circumstances; his real goal was to stretch out his arm toward Eunie, who recognized what he wanted to do and moved to unfurl one wing his way. 

Rika lunged forwards to grab Eunie and try to pull her away from her partner. Meanwhile, left in the dust, Jr rambled [color=SpringGreen]”Oh nonononono”[/color] while forming knives with chains trailing from them. These blades launch forwards, past Taion , and then shot back again, trying to wrap him up so Jr could drag him back. 

They held for just a moment, then the unpracticed technique failed, chains shattering in the face of the couple’s determination to become one. The moment the two touched, their beasts changed into static and melded together, the distortion swelling in size and intensity as it rose into the air. When it resolved the next moment, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/mhfRmcO.png]powerful fusion[/url] loomed over the kid’s heads, bearing the colors and features of both Rockertrice and Lapacitor. This ‘Lapatrice’ did, however, also sport the wounds from both constituents, and their labored breathing indicated that they were still in a bad state.

Lapatrice had plenty of AP to work with, though, and for their first order of business they fired off a Sonic Boom to batter both opponents with a gale-force blast.

Said opponents went flying backwards through the air from the force, screaming with pain and alarm as they did. Both recovered their senses before they hit the ground however. Rika double jumped to slow her momentum before she hit the wall, then used her grappling hook to reel herself back towards the foe, gearing up for a flying punch. Jr meanwhile retracting into his shell and skimming along the ground, bounced off the wall, and then went sailing back towards the ‘Lapatrice’ with basically all the momentum of the knockback preserved.

The speedy turnaround brought both right back to their fused foe before Lapatrice could really recover. Quickly selecting a target, its constituents aimed a Smack at the incoming Rika in order to max out on AP, only for Junior’s shell to strike them in the leg. With a grunt, the Lapatrice fell to one knee, their plug arm hurriedly thrust out and into the ground for support. Rika’s punch then struck their fused face, almost knocking them down. The next moment, though, their metal pincer closed around the abyssal’s midsection, and the air began to churn as Lapatrice prepared to use their Fusion Power. 

As her brother bounced away again, Rika half went to try and pry the claw crushing her hull off of her, only to switch her mind at the last moment, extend both palms towards the fusion… and open fire.

Flack shots of burning goop where joined by the ratta tat tat of gunfire as both palm mounted cannons unloaded at point blank range into the heavily wounded at its creation fusion.

The heavy bombardment proved too much for Lapatrice to handle. Their grip failed as they staggered back under the withering power of Rika’s barrage, and after another second, their combined form gave in. The fusion dissolved in a roar of static, and when the hissing pixels faded, Taion and Eunie were separated and back to normal, sore and gasping.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Still standing by the sidelines, Clover ran toward her parents.

“Stay back!” Eunie held up a hand that stopped her daughter in her tracks. “Don’t be scared, sweetie. We’re not done just yet.”

Taion gritted his teeth at the koopa kids. “This isn’t a game anymore. Whatever it is you’re trying to do…!”

The two suddenly deconstructed into light, yellow and blue, that flowed together and became a whirling orange core. Around the core a new form constructed, a black and purple, twelve-foot, techno-organic warrior like a [url=https://i.imgur.com/dztHKrz.jpeg]cybernetic alien fairy[/url]. Wing-blades unfurled behind them as both voices spoke in harmony. “I won’t let you hurt my family!”