[center][h3]A Random(?) Encounter[/h3]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ziR5Pse.png[/img]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2747 (+3)
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Shinjuku 
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 15 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](277/150)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 11 [/color][/b] EXP:  [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](213/100)
[/center]

[color=SpringGreen]”Oh come on! They fused tapes again?!”[/color] Jr cried out in dismay at the sight of the [url=https://i.imgur.com/dztHKrz.jpeg]cybernetic alien fairy[/url].He’d missed its dramatic creation due to needing to stop his mad shell spin around the backlot of the cafe, and had wound up basically at the other end of it as a result..

[color=Aqua]”No, it’s something else!”[/color] Rika replied, practically face to face with the fusion. She was really, really regretting not just wearing all her gear under the ‘disguise’ tape now. No armor. No drones. No spear. No rigging. Just her and her gauntlets against whatever this beautiful nightmare was.

The unknown being shifted their weapon into a staff grip as their voices harmonized, backed by an ethereal resonance. Of the two, though, Eunie’s voice sounded slightly stronger. [b]“This is our Interlink–our bond as Ouroboros made manifest. Been a while since we had to pull this out, but don’t think we’ve gotten rusty.”[/b] They thrust their off-hand out as their blade-wings unfolded to extend pink light pinions. [b]”If you threaten our family, we’ll show you no mercy!”[/b]

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMk-qwnMAs[/youtube][/center]

[b]“Get ready for this!”[/b] The Interlink threw themselves forward in a wild tornado lariat, lashing with not just their wing-blades but the light wings within. Their graceful yet vicious art covered enough ground to threaten both koopa kids while evading their attacks, and on hit would debuff their accuracy. [b]”Raptor Raid!”[/b]

[color=SpringGreen]”We didn’t even do that ahhh!”[/color] Jr cried out as he magma rushed to the side, leaving a mine for them to run into. He peppered her with iron spikes as he did, but the spinning blades deflected those where they didn’t simply shatter the crude metal.

Rika meanwhile had simply not had the space to evade, the ship girl being battered by blades and only blocking some with her gauntlets as she was thrown aside by the whirlwind attack. She tumbled to the concrete ground of the lot, but tough girl that she was she was pushing herself back up to her feet a moment later, summoning Maria to charge up an attack she’d unleash later as she did so.

After passing harmlessly through the magma mine and the flechette spray, the Interlink fluttered up into the air, flanked by the disjointed wing-blades that hung beside their body as if physically attached. They moved away from the buildings nearby, leaving the basketball court itself to hover over the adjacent parking lot. Their blade-wings closed, then oriented themselves to become floating cannons that fired pinions down like nails as they drifted back toward the ground.

Jr kept on dashing to and fro, zig zagging back and forth across the basketball court and making himself an erratic target, even if it was one moving in straight lines. As he did this, the kid held his paintbrush to the ground, slicing lines of burning ink across the ground, gradually transforming the battlefield into one where they’d have a terrain advantage.

Rika Meanwhile was left to leap and slide out of the way of the shots. Neither returned fire while doing this, aware that what goes up must come down, and not at all interested in hitting random bystanders out past the carpark. 

Even beyond a mild inclination to not kill random strangers, this was Galeem’s world, and who knew what legendary power some random person on the street might bring into the fight if they survived falling stray bullets.

Instead, when the interlink got close to the ground the pair both rushed them. Rika bullet jumped forwards while Jr dashed in, and when both got close they unleashed burning ink, with Rika firing her grizco blaster (the short range flack cannon nature of its shots mitigating the accuracy debuff she had) and Jr whipping his brush up to send a splash of it forwards.

Though the Interlink’s feet didn’t quite touch the ground as they continued to hover, they were well within their opponents’ range. They held their staff vertically as the blade-wings came together like a shield, albeit a rather ineffective one that blocked only a small portion of the incoming damage. [b]”Tch!”[/b] While on the defensive they instinctively glanced over at Clover, who’d already backed further away, hiding behind one of the parked cars. The sight seemed to sharpen their resolve, and the Interlink whirled around as their blades became wings once more. Ethereal feathers spread wide as the air churned. [b]”Typhoon Field!”[/b] A miniature cyclone went off over an area around them, and while the airburst dealt only middling damage, it also healed the Interlink back to full. [b]”You won’t outlast us!”[/b]

[color=SpringGreen]”No fair! Only we’re allowed to do that!”[/color] Jr shouted at them as they were buffeted back, before casting [color=SpringGreen]”Afflatus Rapture”[/color] using one of the lilies on his healing gage that had been charging up all fight. The resulting insta-cast pulse healed him to full and partially healed Rika, who then promptly re-summoned Maria to heal her the rest, the striker delivering a bloody slam that stole the interlink’s vitality.

[color=Aqua]”All the ink types!”[/color] Rika then requested, as she switched to the basic poisonous goop and tried to coat her in that as well. As she did, she proceeded All Out Assault, resulting in an even faster fire rate and triple shot for 5 subsequent shots. Jr joined in, splashing her with electric goop as well, adding to the burning they’d already applied.

[b]“Hngh!”[/b] When struck by the striker, the Interlink returned fire with light arrows, but when the All Out Assault kicked off they knew better than to stuck around. They took flight, soaring away into the air to try and outpace the bombardment as they worked toward a more manageable range. For a few moments they floated through the air above the rooftops, intermittent shots raining down on the goopy basketball court. Still, while they’d escaped, the element-infused barrage they’d received was nothing to sneeze at. They would need to make the most of this range advantage while they still could. As they raised their staff like a sniper rifle, their blade-wings adhered to it, then fanned out. Arcs of plasma sparkled around it. [b]”Lightning Arrow!”[/b] A bolt blasted down at Junior specifically, unblockable and knockback-inducing.

The kid promptly went flying backwards, smacked into a parked pickup and set off its car alarm, his paintbrush flying off and clattering to the ground away from him. His shell at least took a bunch of the impact to the vehicle, but he also got semi stuck in it thanks to the spikes, and had to scramble to try and pull himself out.

At that point Rika was halfway through wall-jumping up the building, and so she kept going to try and prevent any follow up shots. She landed on the roof, high jumped off of it, double jumped for more height, feather fall rune jumped for even more, and then released a charged up vaultbreaker punch to clear the rest of the distance to the flying foe. 

Careening through the target, launching them up in the process, she then aim-glided in the air in order to turn her other gauntlet around so she could fire the grappling hook back at the Interlink. It whizzed across the gap, latching on, and then as it reeled her in she charged that same gauntlet as she did so that right after the weaker grappling punch hit, she could immediately slam another vaultbreaker punch into them for a third hit, completing her denting blows combo to deal an extra 3 punches worth of damage and knocking 20% of their armor off. On top of the 18% she was already ignoring due to the 3 dots on the interlink.

Then, both gauntlets shorting out due to magic usage, she’d fall back down to the world below.

Thanks in part to the car alarm, which seemed to distract and unnerve the Interlink somewhat, Rika managed to ascend through a rain of pinions and land a few hefty blows against the Interlink that they definitely felt. Though much tougher than the sum of their parts, this fused form wasn’t specialized for defense or evasion. While their face remained static, showing no emotion, they gave voice to an irritated grunt as Rika descended. [b]”Not good. These mudders are tough…”[/b] They glanced back at Junior and the caterwauling pickup truck. That shrill racket would draw attention like moths to a flame, and not just from the owner. [b]”We’re running out of time. Let’s switch things up.”[/b]

The Interlink deconstructed around their core, then reformed into a new [url=https://i.imgur.com/xKbPJYU.png]shape[/url], an almost priestly-looking being clad in ghostly white garb. Immediately, this body split into seven identical copies, and when the doppelgangers cast their arms out, swarms of paper dolls streamed forth like shoals of fish to strike their opponents again and again. 

[color=SpringGreen]”Oh come on!”[/color]

Rika raised her hand to the heavens, the switch having given her gauntlets enough time to recover from the magic overload, and started firing burning goop, using the rapid fire close range cannon to burn paper dolls coming at her. After 8 of these shots, namely no time at all, all out assault triggered again, forming an all out wall of ink blasts right up until the gun’s tank ran dry.

Jr meanwhile tried to dodge, but the swarm was able to nick him three times… and then started slamming into an invulnerability shield as his Stygian Turtle Shell boon proceeded and gave him 3 seconds of invulnerability. He used these to insta cast [color=SpringGreen]”Afflatus Solace!”[/color] on both him and Rika, expending the other two lilies in the healing gauge and blooming the blood lily on his arm in the process.

He immediately expanded this to launch a cast of [color=SpringGreen]”Afflatus Misery!”[/color], causing a bloody red bolt trailing petals to slam into one of the doppelgangers and unleash a 5 yard blast that did half the primary damage to any others caught in the blast. Unfortunately, they’d spread out enough that no others were.

After both of these defensive moves, the pair were left to dodge again, both heading for cover behind the alarmed car as they did so.

[color=Aqua]”Think people’ll notice?”[/color] Rika asked as they regrouped.

Several illusory Interlinks had been destroyed by Rika’s saturation fire, but more had appeared. Now four floated a few feet off the ground, two in the basketball court and two in the parking lot. Toward the end of the barrage, one plowed straight through the onslaught, automatically evading attacks as they used their art. [b]”Atomize!”[/b] Paper dolls flew up and detonated like low-altitude fireworks, their explosions of white and orange confetti able to inflict Blowdown and Blaze. As they followed up with continuous flurries of dolls, the Interlink kept in mind what they’d calculated to be the cooldown of Junior’s healing.

[color=SpringGreen]”Oww”[/color] Jr complained from the floor, before hissing [color=SpringGreen]”Probably”[/color] through the pain of the flames. [color=SpringGreen]”So we gotta make this quick”[/color] 

While Rika rolled onto her back and tried to gun down the one that had just blown them up, Jr used his brush to push himself to his feet, forming iron knives as he did so. Once up, he launched them in a shotgun spray at the next closest copy, with instructions for any that missed to pivot in the air and blast towards the third closest. 

The gunk from Rika’s blaster splattered against the Interlink’s sleeve as they held it up as a shield, backpedaling as fast as possible. Two illusions appeared atop them, then fanned out as they tried to make room, but only the one on the left bore the splotches Rika inflicted. Using that cue, Junior made sure his knives hit the mark. Lightly damaged, the Interlink grumbled in annoyance as they shook the sludge off. [b]”My thoughts exactly.”[/b] Now Taion’s voice sounded stronger. [b]”Let’s bring this farce to a close.”[/b]

They held their palms up, and paper dolls streamed in from all directions. They clumped up, forming into huge boulders that the Interlink then cast forward. Held up by paper dolls, the great stones floated over the koopa kids’ heads, ready to fall. In the moment that their foes’ attention was divided, the one Interlink became six, scattered above the parking lot. In the distance, the combatants could begin to hear police sirens. The sound seemed to frighten Clover, which in turn provoked a quick, almost unnoticeable glance from the nearest Interlink.

About half way though this Jr had called out [color=SpringGreen]”Team up!”[/color] as he ran towards Rika as she was getting up. She, in turn, had paused in a crouch and given him the time needed to hop on her shoulders. The boy raised his paintbrush high and holy power cascaded down from it into Rika’s gauntlets as she squared up to unleash a flurry of blows to all the copies. At that tell, however, she focused in, lunging forwards to deliver a right hook to the air out of which a radiant shockwave blasted, enveloping the true interlink. Then as quick as could be she delivered a left hook, then another right, left, right, left, right, each one unleashing another concussing blast. The final left hook did not have such a blast. Instead she tapped her chest with a finger and then punched forward a friend-heart towards the pair of parents to free them from this Galeem inflicted madness.

With well more than double their constituents’ collective vitality, the Interlink weathered the storm of blows as best they could. Paper dolls surged in the background as they gathered the strength they’d need to turn the tables. [b]”Eightfold-!”[/b]

Rika’s friend heart, delivered a fraction below the requisite seventy-five percent threshold, cut through the noise and stripped the Interlink’s will to fight. [b]”No…”[/b] They sounded horrified as they stared up into the sky. [b]”It can’t be…not again!”[/b] The priestly being collapsed like wet laundry, deconstructing into light as Taion and Eunie took form again.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Clover ran forward, stumbling onto her knees next to her parents as she grabbed their shoulders. Tears ran down her face as she scowled at the koopas. “G-go away! I-I won’t-!”

“I-It’s alright, love,” Eunie scooped up her daughter with one arm as she rose, shakily, to her feet, the car behind her used as support. In the tumult of conflicting emotions that threatened to subsume her, her smile was one of reassuring pride. “Attagirl…”

Taion was breathing heavily, his eyes wide. “We…we have to go.” He glanced at his former opponents, unsure about their intentions, then took his wife’s hand and led her away in a hurry. A moment later and the family was gone, without even bothering to pick up the broken cassette tapes they left behind.

[color=Aqua]”Hey wait! We need to tell you stuff!”[/color] Rika called out, but they weren't coming back, prompting her brother to add [color=SpringGreen]”koopakid64!”[/color] before they vanished from sight.

[color=Aqua]”What is that?”[/color] Rika asked, as she ducked down to loot the tapes, before sailing over the inky mess they’d made of the backlot to grab Jr’s duffle bag and stuffing them into it.

[color=SpringGreen]”It’s the username for the internet stuff”[/color] Her brother replied, as he accepted the bag from her, before insisting [color=SpringGreen]”now let’s get out of here!”[/color] as the sirens got closer and closer.

[color=Aqua]”Mmm hmmm”[/color] she agreed, before starting to walljump up onto the building with Jr still on her shoulders so they could parkour away from trouble.